


Tyro

by the_queen_of_thedas



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Anon prompt sort of, Dalish, Kid - Freeform, Kid Inquisitor, What would the world do if the fate of it was on a childs shoulders?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2018-07-12 18:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7117570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_queen_of_thedas/pseuds/the_queen_of_thedas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would happen if The Inquisitor, The Herald of Andraste, wasn't some twenty or thirty year old elf? What if they were a kid? </p><p>Sora is a 13-year-old Dalish elf who went to the Conclave, only to disrupt plans that were years in the making. Forcing her into the fate and title that is the Herald of Andrate. She is alone in a world where the choices she makes will reflect in the lives of everyone around her. Will a child be able to shoulder the fate of the world as everything she knows turns to ash in her hands?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. My Stomach Leads Me to Weird Places.

Walking up the long winding stone steps of the shemlens’ temple, I kept in step beside Mamae. Her long black braid and pack were slung over her shoulder. She was holding my hand and helping me up the steps, using her staff like a walking stick with the other.

"Ma, my legs are gettin' tired. I don't wanna climb anymore." I complained trying to readjust the bow and pack on my back. We'd been walking for days only ever stopping for a nights rest, or if there were too many shemlens on the road for us to travel. Mamae said that is for our safety, but to be honest, I just liked it when the shems were there cuz I got a break. And If I was lucky a snack from Mamaes pack. Then we'd go off again.

It all started when Keeper Deshanna had called Mamae into the aravel. Mamae was the Clan’s First, so this sort of thing was regular. They'd talk and talk and talk. Mamae would sometimes tell me about what they had said or what she had learnt. Even when it wasn't the most fun. I always was intent on soaking up every word, every story. Enthralled by every snippet of history and tale. Those of dashing rogues and tricksters who won by their cunning most of all. Nothing could ever turn my attention from a story. That's what I was taught, to listen and to learn. That's how the Dalish tried to keep our history.  

"Hush Ra, we're almost there. Just a couple more steps and we'll be at the base camp." She cooed. Her voice was soft and gentle. It was easy upon hearing it, see why she had such a soothing voice for singing. Mamae would sing me a lullaby each night as I drifted off to sleep in our shared aravel. Some days when I wasn't as tired, I would pretend to be asleep just to hear her voice through the camp. Once the song was done, she would then climb in the furs beside me, wrapping her arms around and pulling me to her chest. Holding me like I was a life line.  

It was the most peaceful moments of the day. The fire would still be cracking, elders and adults would be feasting or retelling stories of the hunt. Once the stories stopped, the crickets could be heard throughout the night. Wolves in the distance howling to one another, either to track down their prey or solely for company.

I groaned and looked up to the vast amount of steps ahead of me. "I'm going to be old and gray before we actually make it there aren’t I?" I said, completely serious. It was taking forever, and I was tired and hungry. But Mamae laughed, letting go of my hand ruffling my curly black hair with it.

"Keep exaggerating Ra, and you'll be a grand storyteller in no time." A smile crept across her worn, yet beautiful face. "Better than one who just makes up tales for her friends with her as the main heroine and leaves her friends as sidekicks." She brought her hand to my cheek and raised a brow playfully before they brows furrowed. "Hold still" She ordered in that 'mom' voice. Mamae rested the staff against her pack as she brought her thumb up to her mouth licking the end. Holding my cheek with the other she used her wet thumb to wipe something off my cheek. I retaliated by making a face and trying to pull away, my attempt futile.  

"Mamae!" I protested.

"Hush Sora, hold still." She barked, rubbing her thumb into my cheek. Once she was done giving me the dreaded 'spit wash' she smiled and patted me on the head, taking up her staff once again. I brooded behind her as she started up the steps. I was too old to be treated like a child. I was almost 14 years old, I didn't need to be treated like a da'len, I was almost old enough to claim my vallaslin, just I hadn't shown 'prowess' in anything yet, or 'responsibility'. 

But when I get to the top of these stairs, I bet I'd be as old as the Keeper. Then I'd get my vallaslin. 

Once reaching the top, I all but collapsed onto the ground. My legs were tired and I was starving, but before me stood the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Mamae had told me that this was the resting place of the shems’ savior. I didn't really know much about the humans religions, but from what I heard, it was their god’s wife or something. Looking at it now, the building before me looked like it was a palace built for the wife of a god.  

High towers rose from the mountain top, stone walls protected many of the statues that were placed periodically throughout the courtyard they'd arrived into, and two large wooden doors were open. Armed guards with eyes on their armor stood at the ready. Ready for what, I didn't know. The Conclave was supposed to be for the mages and Templars to sort out their 'issues'. Mamae said that that's why we're here. To make sure that nothing here affected the clan. I really didn't understand the majority of it.   

I looked over to Mamae and she too was breathing hard, sweat was dripping down the light blue of June’s vallaslin. The lines of stress from being First were getting more prominent as the days went on. She wasn't getting as much sleep as she should be, and she was giving me her portions of our limited food. I protested every time sayin' that she needed it more than me. But each time she'd ruffle my hair or place a hand on my shoulder sayin' 'I'm finished growing, you on the other hand,' she'd then give me a playful smile 'aren’t even knee high to a grasshopper.' At that, I'd protest that I was tall for my age, and she'd smile again, though a bit sadder. 'You get that from your father.' I would ask what he was like and she'd go into stories of him. I didn't care if I'd heard them a thousand times, I loved every word of it. But she would always get that sad look in her eyes whenever she told me about him. Portraying him as a dashing hero that had to leave the clan to keep it safe. Often after such stories, and when she had finished the lullaby, I would hear her cry softly into the furs. It broke my heart to hear her like that. So eventually I stopped asking for the stories.

Mamae turned to me. "Let's go find us a place to camp for the night." Her head turned to where a dozen or so tents were pitched. Upon walking over we saw a tall shem woman in brown leather armor with a sword at her side and a funny metal helmet. As we approached the shem gave us the evil eye before shouting at us to stop.  

"Eh! Knife ear" She hollered at us, Mamae and I froze. “I’m talkn’ to ya bitch.” She shouted again. Mamae calmly tilted her head to the woman's obnoxious voice. "Where ya think yer goin’?" She questioned, pointing a gloved finger at us. Her lips tunrd up at the side in a smile. 

"We're just looking for a place to camp Serah." My Mamae deflected innocently. The woman gave a huff clearly noting the small insult of the title before marching up to us. She stood taller than Mamae by several inches and had broad shoulders. Some corn coloured hair could be seen under the helmet, as was the majority of her face.

"Elf camp is-at the bottom of the mountain." She sneered. I could see the muscles in Mamae’s jaw tighten in anger. She then turned to look at me, her eyes judging the pros and cons.

"We just came up the mountain." She explained, not taking her eyes off me. "My daughter and I are just looking for a place to rest."  

"Should've thought of that before yer came up here then." She laughed. "Though I'm sure some of the men here would be happy to share a tent with you. Maker knows these men need the entertainme-" I cut her off, quickly my taking the bow off my back and hitting her with it. The shem fell to the ground almost instantly, shock written across her face.

"Don't ya dare talk about ma mamae like that ya dirty She-"

 "Sora!" Mamae yelled furiously. I looked over to her, she had a mixture of fear and anger. I did a check over to the shem I had just hit seein' the full repercussions all too late. The woman grabbed for me, making purchase on my arm.  

"Little knife eared bitch" She cussed at me. I dropped my bow and struggled to get out of her grasp but she was holding onto me with an iron grip. Mamae grabbed my other arm and managed to start a tug of war over me. It lasted only seconds, but I was pulled towards my mamae’s embrace by what seemed sheer will alone. Her eyes searched mine. "That _thing_ needs to learn proper manners" the shem spat.

My mother took her eyes off of me and stared straight in the face of the human. "She's not a thing you ignorant backwater shem!" She shouted, pushing me behind her. I saw her hand twitch towards her staff. The shems hand went to the sword scythed at her side, taking out her blade with a single movement.

"I'll put you down like the bitch you are knife ear." She sneered. But before either could make another move a loud authoritative voice shouted over the top of the fray.

"Enough!" A tall blonde man with a furry cloak mantle thing draped over his shoulders approached us. He had two armored men at his side. "Corporal report." He ordered coming to stand between both Mamae and the woman shem.  

"Commander, Ser, I- I was attacked by this," she nodded to me. "kni- elf for no reason. Ser." She tried to explain without shuddering. So this guy was her boss I noted. The furry boss guy then turned to my mamae.  

"I take it this one's yours." He nodded to me as I was still in my mamae’s arms.

"Aye Messare," She said, never once bowing her head. The Commander noted her staff warily then turned to face me. He didn't seem to be looking down on me in the figurative sense, but more the literal. I was still growing, give me a break. The guy though was definitely judging something, though.  

"Did you do what the Corporal said?" He questioned. "Did you attack her?" The guys tone was questioning, but not accusing. I shuffled my feet on the ground, averting my eyes.

"Yeah. With ma bow..." I glanced up at him through my curls. "But she was bein' mean." I defended quickly. The man tilted his head. His eyes looked over to where I had dropped my bow in the fight. He then turned back to me.

"How was she being mean?"

The shem woman tried to interrupt "Ser you're honestly not asking a simple child why-"

His head snapped towards the human. "Corporal I was asking the girl, not you. I saw enough." He stated harshly. The woman's shoulders and head dropped and she took a step back in submission. I wanted to stick my tongue out at her but decided against the impulse. That wouldn't really make my case. The Commander looked at me once again, gesturing for me to explain myself.

"Well... we had jus' come up the mountain. We'd been tryin' to get here for awhile, it's taken us  _days,_ " I say dramatically to emphasize the point. "And well when we finally got to the top of all the Creators forbidden stairs. Mamae wanted to find a place to camp." I then pointed to the cluster of tents behind us. The Commander's eyes followed my finger. "When we came here, the lady called us Knife ears, and the 'B' word." The Commander's gaze shifted to the Corporal, who was trying her best to blend into the background and away from his gaze. "She said that the camp for elves was at the bottom of the mountain and that this was a shem- sorry human only camp."

"Ser," one of the armed soldiers that stood beside the Commander interrupted. "There's no camp at the bottom of the mountain." The soldier then turned to me. It was at that moment I realized his ears. They were pointed.  I tried to hide the smile that was begging to spread on my lips. Elves stick up for one another, we gotta. 

"Noted Lieutenant." His voice was stilled as he looked over to the Corporal. "I also didn't instruct any of the camps to be segregated." The Corporal then flinched as the Commander motioned her forward. Taking slow and hesitant steps she came to stand beside him. Still maintaining eye contact with the shem he spoke again. " _IS_ this why you attacked her?"

"No," I stated trying to maintain a straight face. "She told mamae that the only way for us to get a place to sleep was to ask one of the men to share a tent, and somethin' about entertainment." The last line seemed to trigger the Commander’s subtle rage. His lips thinned and his eyes bore into the shem woman, who looked about ready to pee her pants. 

"So you beat her with a bow because she refused you camp, and insulted you both by calling you the 'B' word and racial slurs." It was more a statement than a question. But I nodded. Not sure what the slurs were, but at least it made the lady look pale. Signaling the two soldiers at his side he ordered them to take the shem woman into custody.

"This is not your first offense against elves Corporal." The Commander announced in a stern tone, hand subconsciously going to the pommel of his sword. "There will be no racism within my ranks. Corporal." The Commander chastised. "And to be taken down by a child." he tsked at the notion.

"I'm 13 actually," I interjected innocently, Mamae squeezed my shoulders.

"My mistake, taken down by a 13-year-old," he corrected himself. The corner of his lip almost twitching into a slight smile. He then looked to the two soldiers that now had custody of the shem. "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

The woman glared at mamae and me, "They're fucking knife ears!" She spat at my mothers feet. " _They_ don't deserve to be in the same camp as us. They'll steal all the food and supplies and ruin everything!" I could see the elf guard tighten his grip on the womans shoulder earning her a yelp in pain. The Commander sighed and shook his head.

"See to it she reports to the kitchens for the next 3 weeks, and is given half her pay for the next 3 months." The two guard/ soldiers dragged the woman off kicking and screaming down the mountain. 

The man then turned to face both me and mamae. "My apologies for this. I will see to it that this sort of treatment does not continue," he apologized sincerely. "If you have any further trouble, tell them that they are to report to Commander Cullen in Haven." He gave us a small smile and left following his guards and Corporal down the mountain.  

The boss guy was wrong, though. For as many of 'him' in the world, there will always be 3 times more of the Corporal. Even at my age I knew this. Humans weren't nice, they took every opportunity to make our lives a living nightmare. In the past year, I would have to use both my figures and toes to count the number of times a Shem has hurt one of us or driven us from our camp site. Even then it wouldn't be enough or an accurate count. 

Sighing, my mamae stood. She pushed me out in front of her and took hold of my shoulder firmly. "You were being reckless Sora," she scolded. "What if the Shem Commander hadn't have come? Hmm? The Shem would've beaten you bloody." Her dark blue eyes like my own looked over me.  

"You would've protected me Mamae," I tried to justify. She bit her lip trying to hide a smile while still trying to convey anger at me for my actions.  

She took my cheeks between her hands and placed a small kiss on my forehead. "Ar ju'ama ma bellanaris (I will protect you forever)," she said softly.  

"I ar ma (and I you)," I said in response.

She pulled me into a hug. "If I would've cast a spell da'len, this would have ended differently." Her breath washed over my short black curls. "The man was a Templar. All he would've seen was a mage attacking his soldier."  

The guy was a Templar? Yet he took mamae’s side. I didn't understand it. At that moment though my hunger decided to make its presence know. With a gurgle from my stomach, Mamae then released me from out embrace. She ruffled my hair with a smile regaining her composure. "Go and try and find something to eat." She reached for a small coin purse hidden in a pocket of her robe. "Go buy us some dinner and just stay away from the shems," She said placing two silvers in my hand. I placed them carefully in my pocket. "Don't cause _any_ trouble, I'm going to set up camp over by the statues over there." She pointed to a cluster of stone ladies with bowls. Looking back she gave me the 'do as I say' look. Her face stern but her eyes soft and comforting, knowing that I was safe. Nodding a quick yes and I went to explore the huge building and find some sort of kitchen. My stomach and curiosity leading me on. Okay. It was 99% my stomach.  

I walked slowly up to the two guards at the wooden door. Covering my head with a hood, they didn't even notice as I slipped in behind them. Once on the inside of the grandness of the temple really showed. The walls were decorated with tapestries depicting things from a burning lady with a sword through her stomach to a battle of some kind. It was all very graphic. But hey, so was life.  

I remember all the blood from my first hunt three years ago. I had wanted to cry after seeing the deer collapse to the ground dead. But the pride on my mother's face as I released my arrow with such accuracy that it landed right in the 'sweet spot' made me still my emotions. She taught me how to hang it up then gut it. At first, I was disgusted by the whole thing. I didn't even want to touch my kill until mamae scolded me for being childish. She said that it wasn't hurting it, that Falon'din had already taken the creature to the beyond so that it can sustain the clan. I still didn't like it.

Mamae understood this and told the Keeper that I had good aim but I was no hunter or warrior. She was kind of saddened by that. Grandpapae was a hunter. The best out of the clans until he passed. I guess she wanted me to follow in his footsteps. I hated disappointing her. I hated they look she had whenever I said or did something stupi-

I was driven from my thoughts when I noticed that I had become lost. Looking around I noticed that I was nowhere close to where a kitchen might have been. There was no smell of meat cooking, or of the fires smoldering.

I looked around the long hall that I was now in. The walls were plain but textured, the way chiseled stone always was. A long thick red carpet ran the center of the hall. At the end of it sat two giant oak doors. Walking slowly towards them, my curiosity now overpowering my stomach, I touched the doors. A soft breeze wisped through my curls. Strange, how far was I from outside? I questioned. Suddenly a booming voice came from the other side of the door.  

"Now is the hour of our victory. Bring forth the sacrifice."  Sacrifice? I questioned.

"Why are you doing this? You of all people?" A new voice yelled in question. It was female that much was obvious. Pushing at the doors I tried to sneak in to see what was happening.   

"Keep the sacrifice still." The booming voice ordered. Suddenly the questioning voice screamed. I knew I needed to get in there, I had to help.  

"Someone help me!" they cried. I pushed with all my might and threw open the doors.  

I came to face an open room with a large hole in the ceiling. Figures were standing at the sides, too far into the shadows for me to get a clear look. But the giant demonic figure with red spikes sticking out of its face took up my full attention. I wanted to tuck tail and run right then but my gaze fell onto the elderly women in robes being restrained by magic.   

Throwing caution to the wind I yelled, "Get away from her you monster!" I don't know when came over me but I ran towards the woman who was bound. Slinging of my bow from my back I notched an arrow and aimed it at the big spiky guys mangled face.  

"Run while you can, warn them." The woman pleaded as she looked down at me. I was about ready to let the arrow fly when the demon thing spoke.  

"We have an intruder. Kill the elf." He motioned to the people the shadows. His long lanky arm holding what seemed to be a glowing sphere. From the shadows, though, stepped forward two figures in blue and silver armor. Grey Wardens. Red light shone out from their eyes. With a yelp, I started to back away.

I thought they were supposed to be good?

The Wardens started to close in on me. My arrow trained on the first one to approach me. He was an elf. Though at this point him being an elf really wasn't the most important thing on my mind. Shaking my head I aimed for his knee. I wasn't going to kill him, how could I? I've never killed anything but animals before. I panicked and released the shaft. The tip of the metal flew through the air, landing on its target. The Warden hissed in pain but still kept coming at me.  

He raised his hand and shot forward a fireball in my direction. I dodged it with a yelp and a small prayer to the Creators. The other then came up beside him and join in his assault. Somehow during the attack, my bow had taken a hit and the string had broken.

“Fenhedis” I cursed. (Mamae would have killed me if she heard me swear like that.) I was still trying to get away from the maniacs. I managed to somehow come between them and the monster. He swung a clawed hand at me like he was swatting a fly. Just then a fireball came aiming for me. Doing a duck and roll I scooted out of the way.

Though the ball of fire exploded right at the giant monsters feet. I wanted to fist pump the air but decided me living to see my next name day was more important.

The monster cried out in more annoyance than pain. The old woman still trapped, saw her chance and knocked the orb thing from its grasp. It rolled towards me just as the wardens were closing in, I figured at least I could throw it at them.

The second my hand made contact immense pain shot up from the orb enveloping my arm and I screamed. It felt like the skin was being peeled from it. Thousands of tendrils of magic started rippling over the surface of my skin. I tried to let go of the stupid orb, but my hand wouldn’t obey. My screams were tearing my throat raw and suddenly everything went green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so this happened, I hope you guys all like it. This is going to be fun!


	2. Shaking Glowing Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora wakes up. Solas regrets everything and Varric teaches the kid how to do a proper handshake.*
> 
> *Edited up until this point.*

Cassandra POV 3rd person

When the apostate had come to the Seeker after the Conclaves explosion, she was still foaming with rage. Looking up at the expanding Breach, she knew that they needed all the help they could get. And a mage that knew enough about the Fade to be able to give her answers, any answers, was a Maker’s blessing. She marched him right to the cell where they were keeping the girl. A child for Andraste's sake.  

Soldiers said that she had fallen out of a rift. A glowing woman just behind her; and a magical glowing mark as a grim reminder. Not only was it causing her pain, but as the Breach spread so did the mark. It was killing her.

Neither Cassandra nor Leliana knew what to make of it. Only that the girl, this elven child, was their only clue, their only suspect for what happened.

Cassandra needed answers. She was desperate for them. She and Leliana both had left the Divine, their mentor, their friend, alone at her request. Justinia wanted the two to relax. The talks were getting nowhere, and neither party's leaders were willing to make an appearance. Both she and Leliana were convinced that this was a waste of their time. But the Divine disagreed. She was the one championing for the peace between Templars and mages. It was her vision of peace that kept her, kept them all going.  

Her vision had failed. Now both sides were at war again, more violent than ever. The destruction of the Conclave left each party slandering the other, deeming them the villain. Cassandra had had enough. She didn’t care if they were a mage, Templar or a bloody noble. The one responsible for the Divines death was going to pay. And pay with their life.

-

Solas POV 3rd person

They all but dragged Solas into the Chantry’s dungeon. The Seeker and Spymaster in tow. Once they'd learnt that he had some answers to the Breach that loomed over their heads, they had spirited him away to take a look at the girl who had apparently stepped out of the fade.

Solas sighed, gripping his staff tighter until his knuckles were white. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, he scolded himself. How could he have been so stupid? So naive? This was a mistake that even a child could have overcome with ease. He hadn't expected the darkspawn magister to actually succeed in his attempt to unlock his orb. Let alone blow off a mountain top and tear open the veil.

He bit his cheek as he waited for the guards to open the door of the cell. Faint green light could be seen flashing from the dungeons floor. Solas recognized his magic immediately. Looking into the dark room all he could make out was a small fetal shape on the floor. At each flash, a whimper escaped from it. Before taking a step in, he nodded to one of the guards.

"Bring me a torch. I would actually like to see the one who I'm to heal." Solas said in monotone. The guard grumbled but obliged, sauntering over to a nearby cell he brought over an already lit torch. As the light flooded the cell, Solas had to steel himself from what he saw before him. A child. A shackled elven child laid on these pathetic quicklings floor. A child held his power. The fate of Thedas rested in the palms of this child.

Solas didn’t budge as the guard secured the torch to a local fixture in the cell. It was only when another flare of the mark came that Solas rushed to the child's side. He moved her so that he could actually look at the mark. She had a light frame, so turning her over wasn't much of a hassle. Her face was badly bruised and she had burns on the left of her face just stopping at the edge of her nose. A splash of freckles dotted over the bridge and under her eyes. They drew away from the still pudgy cheeks of youth.

Brushing away the medium length black curls from her face he placed his hands so that they were hovering over her cheeks. He pulled the mana within him, still weak, but malleable enough. He healed up the bruises quickly. The burns, however, would take another day or so of healing to be fully healed. Once he decided that it was all he could do for the day, he pulled back his hands and rested them in his lap. A soft cry escaped the girl.

“Mamae.”

Solas eyes fell and he bit the inside of his cheek one again, guilt seating in him. He knew that the girl's mother was probably dead. Another innocent life lost. Another one upon his head. Taking her left hand, he examined the mark. It seemed to be permanent.

"Fenhedis," he cursed. He had had a sliver of hope that the mark wouldn’t have fused to her will and soul so readily. But no. When had he ever been so lucky? He let got of her hand, letting her retract it back to her chest. Her breathing was shallow and her heartbeat weak. The mark was, in fact, killing her. Solas shuddered. He had just condemned a child to death.  

He worked for three days straight, subduing the mark as best he could. Trying to give the child the best shot at survival. He lived off chugging lyrium potions and 4 hours of sleep. The girl calling 'Mamae' every few hours only further pulled on Solas' guilt and remorse.

The Seeker and Spymaster were among their more frequent visitors, every couple of hours they would come looking for an update. He told them what he could, that the girl was lucky if she survived this at all. Cassandra was not pleased with this on any level. On a few occasions, she'd threatened him into trying another tactic he'd already attempted a dozen times. Later, she would come to apologize only for the cycle to continue.  

On the fourth day, they had all but given up hope. Solas included. He was ready to leave, to abandon her, everyone. If there was another way to close the Breach, he'd find it. He had to. Without the mark, they'd all perish regardless of origin.  

He nodded to the guards upon his exit. He told them to report that he was heading up to the valley to clear his head. If he was lucky, there would be an opening for him to escape.  

-

Sora POV 1st person

My head was killing me, it felt like I'd been hit by the hoof of a halla. My mouth tasted like copper and my teeth ached.  

Groaning, I tried to sit up, but my arms wouldn't move. Something heavy was weighing them down. Suddenly, pain shot through my hand  "Ugh!" I yelled, my eyes snapping open.  

Trying to lift my head, I saw something shining from the corner of my eye. Following it as best I could, the pain still coursing through me. For some reason, I saw a bunch of soldiers with swords out, each one of them pointed towards me.  

 _That's not right!_ I thought. Confusion, then panic took a hold of me. I shot up from the ground and made it to my feet before the sound of a door being slammed open made me freeze in my tracks.  

Very awake now, I had a chance to look around quickly. I was in a long dark hallway with some torches lining pillars. Trying to survey it all quickly my eyes landed on two approaching female figures. One had shining armor and black hair, while the other was in a chainmail robes type thing and sported ruby red locks.

The one with black hair signaled for the soldiers with the very real swords to lower their weapons. The two women, shems might I add, started to circle me. Like wolves to an injured halla they watched for my every movement, my every twitch. They did this in silence for a good minute or so, my heartbeat pounding in my chest and ears. I was scared. I wanted to cry, to run, to hide. But no. I was Dalish. And the Dalish didn’t cower from humans, for shems. We are strong. Never again shall we submit.

Easier said than done. 

Suddenly, the black haired one broke the silence. “Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you now. The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you!”  She yelled down to me. I felt tears stinging my eyes.  

'Everyone who attended is dead.' The sentence kept running through my head. I felt a tear slip down my cheek and I collapsed to the ground. I couldn't hold back the tears and more. Everything hurt, I didn't know where I was, people were yelling at me, I was alone.  

"Mamae-" I muttered through my tears. Was she dead? Did they really mean what they said? Surely not everyone was dead. That's impossible. There were hundreds of thousands of people there. How can they all be just- just be gone? Mamae was still alive, she was probably looking for me right now. I needed to get to her I needed to-

I felt a gauntlet press onto my shoulder. I stifled my sobs to look up at the owner of the hand. The red-haired shem. "Can you tell me how you got that," she said softly her voice echoing off the stone walls of the hallway. She took my other hand and held it up. Just then a flash of green came from it, pain shot through my arm once again and I grit my teeth against it.  

The light lasted for a couple of seconds until it, like the pain, faded away. Taking a deep breath, I tried to explain. "I don't know. Where's my mamae?" I demanded.

The black-haired shem stepped forwards and ignored my demand. “What do you mean, you don't know?“

"I don’t know what that is or how it got there. I just want my mamae.” I shot back at her my voice now faltering. "Please," I tried to keep my tone even, the tears at bay. "I just want my mom." I sniffled looking up to the woman. Her eyes softened and she pursed her lips.  

"I- I don't know where your mother is," the woman said honestly. She then looked over to the other woman, she was watching out exchange with a stoic face. No emotion behind it.  

She tilted her head. “If you co=opperate with us, we can help to find her." They would help me find mamae? deal. I just wanted out of here, I just wanted my mamae. I wanted her embrace, I wanted her sweet voice telling me stories and singing me lullabies. I wanted to be away from shems. I wanted to go home. Looking up to the woman I nooded. She started to circle arounf me, as if this was her way of understanding. "Do you remember what happened? How this began?” she had an Orlesian accent that I hadn't noticed till now. I bit my lip trying to remember. For some reason, it was all fuzzy. Like someone had tried to smudge charcoal away with a finger.  

“I remember running. Things were chasing me. And then… a woman?”

“A woman?” she questioned, almost surprised.

“Yeah, she reached out to me, but then…” Nothing. That's where it ended that's where the smudging stops. I raised a shackled hand to my head and whimpered a bit. It hurt, it all hurt.  

“Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take her to the rift.” Leliana, the red-haired shem, nodded and made her exit. The woman came now to face me. She extended a gauntlet towards me. I reluctantly accepted it. After helping me to my feet she called for one of the guards to bring her the key to the shackles.  

“What did happen? Who are you?” I asked, as she replaced the heavy metal binds with thick, itchy rope. The shem pursed her lips and then looked into my eyes she sighed leading her through the doorway and up a crapload of steps.  

“I am Seeker Pentaghast. Cassandra if you must." Cassandra paused. "As for what happened-- it will be easier to show you,” she stated solemnly. The Seeker lead me through another large hall with pillars and torches, though this one was better decorated and had a strange coloured light shining down through a multicolored glass window above them.

Cassandra opened the doors to reveal a small village. “We call it the Breach. It’s a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It’s not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the conclave.” I looked up into the swirling skies. What I saw terrified me, a large hole, the Breach, dominated the sky. Green tendrils of magic swirled around, while giant rocks seemed to be thrown from its opening. I tried to look for the tall towers of the temple, but I saw nothing. Only smoke and green.  

"Mamae," I whispered. If the Seeker heard me she didn't say anything. Clearing my still dry throat, I began: “An explosion can do that?” The idea baffled me. I'd seen things explode from mixing some of Keeper Deshanna's powders together and accidently putting them too close to a fire. Creators, she and mamae were mad at me for that one. But that explosion was minuscule compared to what could have leveled a mountain.  

“This one did. Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world.” How could it swallow the world? I wanted to ask. It wasn't that big, the world was huge. How could a hole in the sky do that? Who could make a hole in the sky?

Suddenly, the Breach seemed to flare, and so too does the mark on my hand. I drop to the ground, my throat raw from screaming and crying. Cassandra is on me fast, helping me to my feet. A gentle, yet firm, hand on my back. She lets go as I gained my balance.

“Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you." I flinch. "It may be the key to stopping this but there isn’t much time.” She then leads me through a village called Haven and cuts off the rope the second we hit open snow. It was kind of pointless anyways, as I couldn't do anything.

She tells me of the Conclave and that there will be a trial for the murder of the Divine. We pass countless shems, elves, and dwarfs as we head up towards the Breach. The stench of burning flesh and wood are interchangeable. I try to ask her multiple times if she knows where my mamae is but she deflects every one of my attempts. Finally, after another incident with my hand, we reach a bridge.  

"Sora-" Cassandra started, when a large green rock impacted the bridge, shattering it to pieces. Somehow we had both managed not to be buried in the rubble. We tumble onto a frozen river, the ice cold against my bare hands. As the Seeker helps me to stand, another green rock thing comes hurtling towards us. This time, it lands several feet in front of us on the ice. From where it landed, a pool of green slimy-looking light started to form and, instinctively, the Seeker pushes me behind her. A barrier between the pool and me.  

From the pool, a demon seems to crawl out. It hissed when it caught sight of Cassandra. “Stay behind me!” she ordered, charging at the shade. I wanted to protest when below my feet another pool of slimy green light was forming. Jumping back, I slipped on the ice, falling to my butt. I crawled backwards while trying to kick away the light. My back met a broken wooden supply chest just as a shade was crawling out of the new pool of light.  

Frantically, I dug through the box looking for any usable weapon. Staff, nope, sword , nope, daggers, maybe, bow. Creators, yes! I grabbed the bow and full quiver that laid beside it. Hands trembling, I notched an arrow and aimed it at the demon's head. Releasing the string the demon recoiled giving me enough time to draw back another to launch at it. Three arrows down, the demon fell back to the ground, leaving nothing but scraps ragged robes and a pile of dust.  

I look over to Cassandra, who has just thrust her sword through the demon's chest. Walking carefully across the ice, I approach from behind. The Seeker had somehow heard and whipped around thinking I was another demon. I yelped in surprise and dropped my bow. Yep good job Sora, dropping your only weapon. Stupid stupid stupid.  

Cassandra looked to me and then to where I was 'supposed' to stay. She noted the pile of dust and rags on the ice. She gave me a nod and scythed her sword and shield. "You killed it?" She asked, her jaw taut. I nodded slowly looking over my shoulder to the pile of dust that was now being swept away by the wind. The Seeker sighed then bent down to pick up the bow.

“I cannot protect you all the time, and I cannot expect you to be defenseless.” She went to hand me the bow before pulling away. "I suspect you know how to use this. And that it's not a toy." I roll my eyes.

"Yes, yes I know. Don't point at people's heads, halla or bear traps. I get it." I sighed, my tone overly sarcastic. The Seeker huffed and handed me the bow. I strapped it to my back and we continued up the valley. Eventually, we came to a large set of stairs. The mark on my hands felt tingly as we went up them.  

At the top, we could not only hear but see a fight between demons and soldiers going on, a green hole in the center of it all. Magic, arrows and swords all clashed against the talons and claws of demons. I notched an arrow, my hands no longer shaking from fear but from adrenaline. It was a game. If I could get them before they got me I won. As simple as that.  

Cassandra had told me to focus on that game, to make it so that the demons didn't even have a chance at getting close. For the most part, it worked. There was the odd time with the wraiths that their long distance attacks had almost cost me a point, but Cassandra had picked up on that. She attacked those first distracting them before they could hone in on me.  

I stayed back from the fray as the Seeker charged with a battle cry. Letting an arrow fly, it met its mark in the back of a demon’s head, it went down without a fight. _Point 12 for me._ Turning and notching another arrow, I searched for my next target. Seeing a shade approaching the, what seemed to be, the only mage on the field, I fired true, missing the mark of its center back by inches.

This seemed to be enough to draw its attention, however. As it came closer the mage looked over at me as I was frantically trying to string another arrow. Something flashed across his face and he cast an ice rune in the demon’s path, freezing it at the slightest touch. I looked over to him and gave him a toothy smile and continued to rapidly fire arrows one after another. The shade didn't stand a chance as we both attacked with spells and projectiles.

The shade fell to the ground, half a dozen shafts sticking out of it, and covered in ice. _Point 13 for me._ I noted with a small smile, walking over to where the demon once stood. My hand started to tingle though, that pins and needles feeling you get when you sleep or sit on it, yeah that’s what it was. I looked up to see a small, but still bigger than me, rift in the middle of the courtyard.

Suddenly a hand grabbed mine and held it up to the rift. “Quickly, before more come through!” a deep voice exclaimed. I stood on my tippy toes to reach the rift. The feeling of magic cascading down my arm made me shudder. I could feel it, the magic. It was building inside my palm wanting to be free, but not yet. No it wasn’t ready. After another moment I crushed my hand closed and the rift followed in tow. I stood back, the hand that was once holding mine let go too.

“What did you do?” My eyes didn’t move from the fading mark. It didn’t hurt now, as the light faded to the olive skin of my palm.

“ _I_ did nothing. The credit is yours.”

"You sure?" I grumbled to myself, shaking my hand, the pins and needles sensation still present. I looked over to see it was the mage that had helped me take down the shade. The first thing I noticed was that he was bald, well that and that he was an elf. He was tall, taller then mamae that’s for sure. I bet he was about an inch or so taller than Cassandra. He was dressed in a raggedy white shirt and a thick cotton overcoat and had, what looked like a wolf jaw necklace laying over top it.

“You’re the guy that helped me get a point.” I blurted out, placing my bow on my back. The elf gave me a sideways smile and tilted his head.

“A point?” He questioned. I sighed, now I'm going to have to explain it to him. This is going to sound stupid. I sucked in a breath.

“Yep, each one I kill I get a point for.” I looked over to the Seeker who was trying to help wounded soldiers to their feet. “So far I’m winning.” I boasted. The elf chuckled and nodded.

“I was glad to be of service then.” He said calmly. The elf then looked to Cassandra who was marching over towards us. “Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon the girl’s hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake – and it seems I was correct.” The Seeker stopped just short of where the rift was. She looked to the Breach and then back to the elves.

“Meaning it could also close the Breach itself.” Cassandra's eyes brightened.

“Possibly.” The mage then turned to face me, his grey eyes flickering between my hand and my face. “It seems you hold the key to our salvation.” I stilled.

“I’m not really good with keys.” I tried to explain, my toes tapping at the ground. “I always lose them.”

A raspy voice came from behind me. “Good to know it’s attached then.” A dwarf with an absurd amount of chest hair placed a crossbow on his back. “And here I thought we’d be ass-deep--” His eyes landed on me, “err-- rear-deep in demons forever.” The dwarf strutted over fixing his gloves.

The dwarf was about my height, though I probably had an inch or two on him. He wore a red tunic with the front open a bit too wide. “Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong.”  Varric winked at Cassandra, who proceeded to scowl. I smiled at that.

I think I’m going to like him.

I gave him a cheeky smile and looked to Cassandra. He must be part of their soldier group or something. “Is he with you or…?” Cassandra’s cheeks reddened a bit at the comment. A chuckle from the elf draws my attention.

“Was that a serious question?” He asks, his eyes crinkling at the sides. I look down at my feet and my ears droop a bit. The dwarf hits the elf in the arm before outstretching a gloved hand to me.

“Technically I’m a prisoner, just like you.” He says, his voice calm and reassuring.

 _Prisoner?_ Was I a prisoner? They had me in a room shackled, then tied me up. I understood that people didn’t like me for what happened to the sky. I didn’t understand why they felt like that, shems were weird. Always blaming the elves for anything that went wrong. But a prisoner? The word sat in my mind. People in prisons were bad. They stole, they hurt people. I didn’t hurt anyone, well only the Shem lady. But we got off the hook for that one. Is that why they wouldn’t let me see Mamae? Because they thought I had done something bad? Hesitantly, I took his outstretched hand and held it. Was this what I was supposed to do? Why did he want to hold my hand? I thought shems were the weird ones. Shaking his hand slightly, the dwarf said. “Hey, Keeper, you’re supposed to shake the hand.” _Keeper?_

The dwarf lifted an eyebrow then shook my hand. It was weird, just moving your hand up and down slowly? Was this some sort of shemlen or dwarf hello. I pulled it back when the shaking stopped.

The Seeker cleared her throat with a cough. “I brought you here to tell your story to the Divine. Clearly that is no longer necessary.” She grimaced.

“Yet, here I am. Lucky for you, considering current events.” He smiled and clapped his hands together, then he reached for the crossbow at his back. The dwarf looked to me for a second and I had the sudden courage to speak.

“That’s a sweet crossbow!” The words rolled off my tongue enthusiastically. For all it was worth, it really was. The metal along the track and sides seemed to be well managed and oiled. It shone with a certain intensity that basically screamed how much it was polished. Dark oak or maybe it was cherry tree wood made up the butt and foregrip. It was all very elegant. By far the best I’d seen yet.

I had tried to ask Crafter Ver’an to make a crossbow for me once. It was after I went for the first time with the hunters to a shemlen town. I’d been so overwhelmed by all the colours, smells and people. For the most part though I was forced to stay with the hunters. The shems that traded with us were nice enough, but we still got a lot of side looks and stink eyes.

Though a store had caught my eye, it belonged to a blacksmith. Splitting off from the hunters I snuck into the shop. The blacksmith looked up from his forge at my approach. I must’ve been a strange sight. A 10 year old elf, in ragged green robes walking into a smithery alone. I always did somehow make an entrance.

I was browsing his swords and shield when I’d caught sight of the crossbow displayed on the wall. It was half metal and wood. Like a bow but easier to fire. I stared at it for a good few minutes before the blacksmith, a bear of a guy, cleared his throat. He told me that it was too expensive and dangerous for a child. That’s where I protested that I was 10, only earning me a slight chuckle.

He pulled it off the wall and told me how it worked, that it could fire faster than any bow, and with more ferocity. I was entranced by the mechanism. He patted me on the head and placed it back on the wall. He told me to wait at his counter for a second.

He came back with a slingshot saying that it used to be his sons, but he was never really good at aiming it at anything other than his sister's head. I giggled at carefully taking the toy/weapon into my hands. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a copper mamae had given me. But he shook his head.

The smith didn’t even charge me for it. Said something about how it was probably safer in my hands than his sons and that he was from Ferelden. That he owed the elves something for stopping the blight and I didn’t really care at the time. I’d just gotten a free sling shot. Later in town, after getting swatted up the backside of my head for running off, I’d asked the hunters why Ferelden's liked elves, and why we didn’t go there.

They laughed at me, said that the only reason why shems ‘put up’ with us there was because the Hero of Ferelden was a Dalish Elf. If we moved there for safety, other clans might think the same. Eventually the shems would grow tierd of out presence and want up gone. They said they'd probably eradicate whole clans to get their way, they'd done so in the past. What would stop them now?  I didn’t wander off or ask any more questions after that.

“Ah, isn’t she? Bianca and I have been through alot together.” The dwarf said, pulling me from my thoughts.

“It’s a she?”

Varric laughed. “Of course. And Bianca will be great company in the valley.”

Cassandra raised her hands making a clear ‘no’ gesture. “Absolutely not. Your help is appreciated, Varric, but…”

“Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker?” The dwarf cut her off. “Your soldiers aren’t in control anymore. You need me.” Cassandra made a sort of disgusted noise and stalked away.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see the mage leaning on his staff. He seemed to be enjoying the little love spats between Cassandra and Varric. Well, to be honest they did sort of act like an old married couple.

He gave me a warm smile. “My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. I’m pleased to see you still live.”

Varric voice come from behind me. “He means, ‘I kept that mark from killing you while you slept.'” Wait so he’s the one that helped me? I looked over at the elf-- Solas-- pride? He did looked somewhat prideful or smug at Varric’s retort.

I nodded to him. “Thanks, but what in the name of the Dread Wolf, is it?” I asked innocently. Something flashed across his face along with a twitch of the lips before it vanished, replaced by a seemingly neutral mask. As he opened his mouth to answer, the Seeker stepped beside us and interrupted.

“Solas is an apostate, well-versed in such matters.”

Solas looked over to the Seeker and sighed. “Technically, all mages are now apostates, Cassandra.” He turned his attention back to me. “My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage.” So he wasn’t trained in a circle. Did that mean he was Dalish? No, he didn’t have any vallaslin. City elf? No. they typically got carted off to the circles the second one of them sneezes fire. “I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach. If it is not closed, we are all doomed, regardless of origin.”

“What will ya do once this is all over?”

Solas shifted from leaning on his staff to standing on the back of his left leg. “One hopes that those in power will remember who helped, and who did not.” So he was wary of the shems. I nodded and Solas directed his next comment at Cassandra. “Cassandra, you should know: the magic involved here is unlike any I have ever seen,” he explained. “Your prisoner is a child.”

“I’m 13 actually,” I corrected.

“Ir abelas, da’len.” He said quickly, before getting to the point. “I find it difficult to imagine anyone having such power. Let alone a ch--13 year old.” A wide smile spread across my face. Both Cassandra and Solas didn’t seem to notice.

Cassandra nodded to the apostate for him to go ahead. “Understood. We must get to the forward camp quickly.” The Seeker said, motioning for me to follow her. “Stay close.” She said, not even looking back at me. I tugged on my sleeve as Varric came up beside me, crossbow at the ready.

  
“Well, Bianca’s excited!” I giggled to myself and followed in tow, falling in a step behind Solas and the Seeker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was longer than expected. But a pleasant surprise none the less. 
> 
> I hope you are all enjoying the Kid inquisitor idea fic. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or their own childhood memories/ stories they want to be put into this, I would be glad to somehow find a way to add them :)


	3. Corpses and Ladders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Varric and Solas are over protective and somewhere along the line Sora meets Roderick, you can guess how that goes over. There's also a family reunion later on in the chapter.

We started down into the valley, burning wagons and bodies littered the snow. The smell made my stomach turn. The hunger that had lead me into this situation gone with the charred scent of burnt flesh. I tried to keep my eyes off all the corpses. Solas and the Seeker seemed to notice my discomfort and kept me away from them as much as possible. Shielding my view with their own forms. 

The demons were dealt with easily enough. I got an extra 2 points from sticking an arrow in two wraiths as the others were dealing with a lesser and greater shade. It earned me praise from both the Seeker and Varric. The mage simply nodded and stayed to the back as we went by a burning cabin and up a large set of stairs leading to a bridge. 

The demons at the top had us at a disadvantage. They had the higher ground, Varric, Solas and I were useless in the fight until Cassandra was able to give us a chance to level the playing field. Literally. This was so simpler to hunting. The advantage and disadvantage of the ground and wind all played a factor. It made me proud that I knew some of this. 

Never thought hunting with mamae would actually pay off. 

As we made our way down the stairs towards the burning cabin. I tried to match pace with Solas.  

Easier said than done.  

Long vs short legs don't make for an even playing field. But still being the determined stick I am, I managed by some god’s divine will to catch up.  

"Question." My voice seemed to echo through the air as snow fell peacefully amidst the fire and smoke. The mage was using his staff effectively as a walking stick. He gave me a side glance and sighed turning his full attention to me.  

"Yes, da'len?" 

I bit my cheek and looked back to the Human and Dwarf that now trailed behind us. They seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. "Why can't you imagine someone like me having the thing on my hand?" The question might have off-put him because he stumbled a bit on the downward paths stones. He tilted his chin up and raised a brow looking down to me. You know, that look all adult gives you when you said something you shouldn’t have, but they don't scold you for it. Yeah, that one. 

"It's not that I can't imagine it being _you-"_ He started choosing his words carefully. "It's that you're so young to be burdened with it." I bit my lip and looked down at the snowy path beneath me. So it's because I was a ‘kid’ then. I can't do anything because I'm a stupid kid. Makes sense to me. 

"Oh." I simply said. Trying not to meet his gaze. I didn't know what I was expecting him to say, in all honesty. I guess I should've anticipated his answer, that's all anyone ever sees its age. I was responsible, sort of.  If an adult had it, would it be that different? I sighed. There was no use in getting worked up over this. I'll just have to prove them wrong, prove to Solas that I'm not a child and that I can use this thing. 

As we rounded the smoldering cabin the mark flared again. It wasn't as bad as when the Seeker and I were on the bridge, but it still hurt. I yelped at the sudden tingles that it caused. I grabbed my wrist and shook it, hoping that the pins and needles feeling would soon leave.  

Solas took it upon himself to gently reach for my hand. His long fingers delicately probed with magic at the mark. A faint blue glow eliminated from the tips of his fingers.  

I sucked in a breath as the pain and tingling faded, replaced with a warm fuzzy sensation. I looked to the elf’s face, his brows were knitted together as if in thought or concentration. When he pulled his hands away, I thanked him. "Ma serenass," I said quietly. The elf stood back and nodded.  

"Serannas," he corrected. I rubbed my foot into the ground and nodded, trying to have my attention go elsewhere. "Dalish." It was more a statement than a question.  

My ears perked up, "And proud." My voice rang true.  

"Yet you're clearly away from the rest of your clan." 

"I'm not alone, hahren." The mage stiffened slightly. "Mamae is with me, the Keeper said that it was our duty to protect the clan."  

"I see." His voice was raucous. We continued walking up the steps. Not a word was spoken that was not an order as we encounter the next batch of demons. Cassandra took charge and  formulated a strategy. Barking to Varric, Solas and me to take up position. The three of us were to distract the wraiths and at least one of the shades, while Cassandra dealt with the others.  

As the wraiths came closer, I launched arrows into their torsos. The screams of the wraiths echoed off the snow around us. Stepping to the right of Solas, I dodged an incoming attack from one of the green demons. 

Varric climbed a small hill to deal with the demons from the higher vantage point. His crossbow raining down fury and shafts down upon the enemy. It wasn’t enough to deter two shades from the Seeker. She was struggling holding the higher ground and the sheer ferocity that they were raining down upon them. The simmering skin of a barrier that the mage had cast shimmered in the light of the Breach and sun. 

Suddenly, with the sound of a smashed glass bottle, the barrier broke and the Seeker let out a grunt in pain as the demon’s claws made contact with her shoulder plate. Frantically, I looked to Solas and Varric, they were both dealing with the long range. It was up to me. 

I got this.

Taking a breath in, I notched the bow I pulled back, steadying my breath as I aimed for the one assaulting Cassandra. I would have to shoot across the path and be deadly accurate. Great. The shade was moving as was the Seeker. I followed all three of the forms before seeing a potential opening. I aimed for the solar plexus of the demon, or where it should be within a second. Taking a gamble I released. 

The whistling of an arrow passed the Seeker’s ear to land purchase in the demon's chest. I let out a triumphant squeal as it faded into the ground leaving nothing but the remains of ash and rags. Taking the opportunity of the single enemy, the warrior finished off the demon. Its shrieks fading as it to disintegrated into ash and rags. 

The Seeker looked to me and gave a nod when her eyes went wide. I was suddenly jerked to the right by my jacket as a ball of energy shot past me. I looked to see Solas gripping the fabric of the jacket tightly with one hand. His knuckles white where he clutched them. With the other he spun his staff in circles, shooting ice from the foci at the end. The wraith that had originally shot the energy now stood frozen near the hill Varric perched on. 

With a bolt from Bianca, the demon shattered and the battle was done. Solas released the jacket carefully, his face a neutral mask. 

“Thank you hahren,” I muttered. Solas regarded me with indifference and then shot a menacing scowl to the dwarf. 

“I would not need your thanks if someone knew how to cover their allies.” He snapped accusingly. The dwarf placed his crossbow on his back and walked briskly over to us. 

Varric looked to me. “You okay, Keeper?” I nodded. “Good.” He turned his attention to the mage. Both dwarf and elf had their hands in clenched in fists. I took a step back out of instinct, I’d seen enough dispute to know when to scurry away. The two started to argue. “And I’m pretty sure it was you that the demon was trained on in the first place, Chuckles.” Varric accused.

“As was the other wraith that I was too busy dealing with.”

“The one  _ I _ was also aiming at.”  Varric shot back. 

“Is that what you call it?”

“You wanna see how well I can aim, Chuckles?”

“Enough!” The Seeker stepped in, separating the two. “ The Breach needs to be closed and we don't have any time to waste on petty arguments." Her words cut through the frozen air like a hot knife through butter. The two grumbled but complied. Their bickering could wait until the hole was sealed. 

Looking around at the rags left by the demon, I found a tooth. Now I've seen some pretty big teeth before. Crafter Ver'an even managed to barter for a dragon’s tooth. The thing was probably the length of my forearm. I snatched it from the rags and hid it within my jacket.  The other didn’t seem to notice as they lead on up the hill.

  
____

 

We had closed another rift and made it to the bridge’s gate.  Cassandra ordered for them to open the doors now that the demons and rift had been dealt with. Soldiers, chests, and tents lined the long bridge that we stepped onto. We passed several tired and pained faces. I looked away trying to block the sight of bloodied faces and (menacing?) glares. Cassandra passed off my quiver to one of the soldiers who wasn't seriously injured, ordering him to replenish its contents. She then lead us to a large table in the middle of the bridge where a shem cleric of some sorts argued with the red-headed woman who’d been with Cassandra in the dungeon. Gods be damned, what was her name? He face was hooded but that didn’t stop the clerics desperate attempts at bickering. The shem cleric flailed his arms around as if hoping to land purchase either physically or in his words, the hooded lady was having none of it. She leaned over a table with a map, waving off the man's complaints. 

The clerics head shot up at our arrival. “Ah. Here they come.” He sneered. The hooded lady looked up to meet Cassandra's gaze, turning only to see me. 

“You made it. Chancellor Roderick, this is–”

Roderick cut off.  “I know who she is. As Grand Chancellor of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution.”

“Execution?!” I yelled, my mouth hung open. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” The cleric, or chancellor, whatever he was glared at me. 

“Silence!” He boomed, his voice rigid. “You know very well what you did wrong, you killed Her Holiness and she deserves justice.” He reached out to grab my shirt, but Solas pulled me back at the last second. Sneering, he whipped his head towards the Seeker. “Take this brat to justice, I order it.”

“'Order me’? You are a glorified clerk. A bureaucrat! One that bullies children.” Her hand flew to her swords hilt as she took a step closer to the shem.

The human seemed to wilt to the challenge because he all but scurried back behind the table with the hooded lady. “And you are a thug, but a thug who supposedly serves the Chantry!” 

Leliana spoke, “We serve the Most Holy, Chancellor, as you well know.” Her form never looked up to the cleric. 

“Justinia is dead! We must elect her replacement, and obey  _ her _ orders on the matter,” Roderick protested. 

I bit my cheek in anger. How could this-- this human go around being an ass to everyone and complain. While those like the Seeker, Solas and Varric were the ones to actually do something about the madness going on beyond this camp. How dare he have the gall to accuse me of killing someone. I’ve never killed another shemlen, elf, dwarf or qunari in my life. Why in the Creator's name would I kill their priestess lady? I did nothing! And to have this shem bully everyone else to do his will, while soldiers fought demons just outside the gates, it seemed a little unfair and unjust. 

“You’re an asshole,” I stated to the human. His face fell to confusion than anger. “You’re treating everyone here like they’re less than you, while the Breach,” I pointed, “is killing people. Are your ears and eyes so small shem that you can’t hear the screams of your people or see their suffering?”

The group fell silent at the comment, I couldn't tell if the shem was red with rage or embarrassment. At this point, I didn't care. My hand hurt and mamae was probably out there looking for me. I had to get to her. Regardless of what  _ this _ human had to say about it. I knew I was innocent. I didn't kill nobody. Mamae would, believe me, mamae would tell them the truth.

Cassandra stepped forward. “We can stop this before it’s too late.” 

The shem huffed in response and scowled at Cassandra. “Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless.”

“We must get to the temple,” Cassandra refuted. “It’s the quickest route.” Route? What route? Why couldn’t we just take the stairs? Wait, never mind. Let’s not take the stairs. 

“But not the safest," the hooded lady interjected. She points to the mountain. But not the base, no, the top. "Our forces can charge as a distraction while we go through the mountains.” 

The Seeker shook her head. “We lost contact with an entire squad on that path. It’s too risky.” 

“They aren’t necessarily dead, Cassandra.” The hooded lady added. She was right, right? That doesn’t mean they're dead. Just because you lost communication with them didn’t mean that they’re gone. Maybe they just lost their bird or something, right?

“Listen to me. Abandon this now, before more lives are lost.”  The cleric looked up to the sky just as the Breach started to expand. Power and magic fluctuate from my mark suddenly. I collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain. Solas and Varric were at my side within seconds. The apostate helping me to my feet as I whimpered at the painful tingling sensation the mark was causing. 

“How do  _ you _ think we should proceed?” Cassandra asked in concern and genuine curiosity as she watches me shake the pins and needles from my hand. They were asking my opinion? Why? I was just a kid! Oh, degrading myself with that comment, eh? But it was still the same. 

I paused for a moment. “You’re asking me? Why?”

“You have the mark,” Solas said still at my side.

“And you are the one we must keep alive. Since we cannot agree on our own…” Cassandra added. But still, why me? I had a mark, yes, but that didn’t determine my ability to lead or make choices! Oh, right responsibility. I sighed, then looked to the adults that circled around me. The adults who left the choice of either getting to the breach faster or saving people's lives. Some adults they were.

“Use the mountain path. We can all work together to close the Breach and find your people.” I nodded to the hooded lady who eyed me curiously. “I guess we all know what’s at stake, the Breach needs to uh-stop.” Cassandra seemed to frown at my choices, but Varric gave me a look of approval. 

“Leliana. Bring everyone left in the valley. Everyone.” Cassandra addressed the hooded lady. As we started to walk away, the cleric sneered at the Seeker .

“On your head be the consequences, Seeker.” I spun on my heels and stuck my tongue out at the big ass. He scowled, but before he could make a comment, a soldier handed me a full quiver and a couple of health potions. The shem glared at me and I gave him a little triumphant smirk before we headed to the base of the mountain. 

___

 

When they said mountain path, I didn't expect ladders. Stairs sure, as much as I hated stairs, I would've preferred those to  _ this.  _ Looking high above my head I could feel panic starting to set in. I have to  _ climb that _ . There must've been 2 or three sets of ladders. Each one probably longer than three aravels if lined end to end.  

Cassandra lead the group to the first ladder. “The tunnel should be just ahead. The path to the temple lies just beyond it.” She started by taking point at the bottom of the ladder, Solas directly behind her. 

Adjusting his staff to his back. “What manner of tunnel is this? A mine?” Solas questioned. 

“Part of an old mining complex. These mountains are full of such paths.”

“And your missing soldiers are in there somewhere?” Varric commented securing Bianca to his back and adjusting his gloves. By the way Varric looked up at the ladder and height we’d have to climb, I would’ve thought he’d be as reluctant as me to go up. 

Solas inclined his head to the dwarf, noting his discomfort.  “Along with whatever has detained them.”

“We shall see soon enough.” The Seeker started up the ladder, her shield and sword clanging against her armor at every step. Armor wouldn’t help her if she fell right? What happens if she falls? I was about to voice my concerns when a hand comes to rest on my shoulder. My trepidation about going up must've been obvious because Solas gave me a small smile before gesturing to the ladder. 

“I won’t let you fall, da’len. No harm will come to you.”

I looked up at him skeptically. “You promise?” I asked. If he promised then at least I had his word right? The Keeper always said that someone was only as good as their word. Solas has been a nice person so far, right? He’s helped me close the rift, even Varric said he helped me with the mark when I was in the dungeon. 

Something crossed across the apostate’s face, it was there than not. The emotion too fast for me to perceive. But he slowly nodded. “I promise, da’len.” An idea popped into my head.

“You pinky swear?” A wolfish grin spread across my face holding up my left hand with my pinky erected. I was stalling, I’m just going to admit it. I was procrastinating going up those rungs. 

“Pinky swear?” The elf gave me a questioning look. I moved my hand a bit to show what he was supposed to do. Solas just stood there confused as the mountain air whipped at his tunic. 

“Here,” I pulled at his hand and brought it up to chest height. Closing his fist, I pulled his little finger to mimic my hand. “Good, now ya link pinkies and promise.” Cautiously we linked fingers and I gave it a small shake. 

“I promise that you won’t come to harm.” A triumphant grin plastered my lips. Solas regarded me before shaking his head and headed for the ladder. Cassandra and Varric were almost to the top of the ladder already, so we had some ground to cover. 

I went ahead of Solas on the ladder, my hands shaking as I climbed. It seemed like it took  _ forever _ for us to get to the top. My knuckles were white from the climb and my knees shook. Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t look down. I chanted in my head. I refused to look anyone in the eyes, let alone bring my gaze up from the solid ground. 

The group carried onto the next ladder. Yep, another one. Gods did I hate this. Muttering under my breath, I took up my position in the line to head up the rickety rungs. Taking a shaky breath in, I followed close behind Varric as he managed his way up. We were almost halfway to the top when a gust of air came across the mountain. Cassandra, Varric all held fast to the wood. But as the wind crossed my back, I could feel it pulling me off of the rungs. My grip was waning as it continued its assault lifting me from the ladder. I tried to hold on, my hands trying to fasten themselves to the wood in any way I could. Splinters entered my skin as I looked down at the ground below me, the ground so far away. Solas was also bracing himself against the wind, his head turned to avoid the brunt of its force.  The gust subsided a bit and I loosened my grip on the rungs thinking the worst of it was over. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. 

The wind picked up again as if it was waiting for my false sense of security. It ripped me from the ladder. I started to fall, panic and fear made my blood cold as I started to scream. 

But suddenly my descent was stopped abruptly by a hand gripping desperately to my hood. I looked up to see Solas, a panicked expression clear across his face. He gently coaxed me closer to the ladder and I grabbed hold as if it was my lifeline. Well, I guess it was. 

Adrenaline had me shaking as we made it to the top of the ladder. I all but threw myself onto the ground when we got to the top. Cassandra and Varric both confused as I kneeled on the snow covered dirt. Solas waved them off as he placed a friendly hand on my shoulder. I looked up to him, tears beginning to sting at the edges of my eyes. 

“Ma serannas….” Was all I managed. Solas nodded and helped me to my feet.  “Thank you for not letting me fall. Thank you for saving me again.”

The elf solemnly nodded. “I did ‘pinky swear’ didn’t I?” He gave me a quick smile, with a raised brow. I nodded and a little relieved laughed escaped me. I readjusted my bow and looked to the human and dwarf who watched the exchange curiously. 

Varric was the first one to speak. “You okay, kid?” He looked sympathetically at me. I nodded quickly. “What happened?” I looked down at the ground then to the ladder.

“The wind.” My voice was quiet, yet still wavering. “Solas saved me from becoming an elf pancake.” Varric and the Seeker nodded in acknowledgment then looked to Solas who stood stoically near the ladder.  They gave their thanks to him before we pressed on. We came across a couple more demons, my aim was off due to the quivering of my hands. I almost missed twice, an arrow narrowly missing Cassandra's shield. If she noticed the slip up on my part she didn’t comment. 

Going through the tunnels I picked up some random clothes, coins even a pair of dirks! Cassandra took them away from me almost as soon as I had picked them up. She mumbled something about the daggers looking too sharp and something-something child. Maybe she did notice with the arrow, maybe this was like some sort of punishment. I didn’t know. But when we came to the opening of the cave, my score had gone up by another 4. I was at 21 now, I’m pretty sure Cassandra was the only one beating me at this point. 

The rogue and warrior went through the opening first before stopping just outside its entrance.  Varric sighed, defeated. “Guess we found the soldiers.”

The Seeker shook her head “That cannot be all of them.” Solas and I came to the entrance. There on the ground laid three corpses,  _ bloodied corpses.  _ My eyes wouldn’t leave their forms as the others discussed what must be a priority and what was up ahead. It was only when Varric mentioned my nickname from did I snap my head up.  

“I’m leaving  _ that _ to Keeper here.”

I nodded solemnly, glancing back to the three bodies that laid on the ground. I had seen dead bodies before, when someone died in the camp we would have a service to send their soul to Falon’din. Their body was present, but it just wasn’t the same. It was sad and happy all at the same time. We mourned yes, but we celebrated their life. Now, with these bodies just here, there was nothing to celebrate, no one to mourn for them. I didn’t know how to describe what I felt, it wasn't guilt no. It was that unsettling feeling. Like I had just intruded on something that I shouldn’t have. But also a mixture of a knot in my stomach. 

“You okay, Keeper?” Varric asked. I nodded quickly and followed the party down the rest of the way. I was silent in following. We continued onto a rocky pathway where I could see up ahead there was fighting. Soldiers and demons fought claw to steel as a giant rift loomed over their heads. There were two lesser shades and two wraiths

“Lady Cassandra!” One of the soldiers cried out clearly glad to see us, we rushed to their side and entered the fray. 

“You’re alive!”

“Just barely.” She commented, out of breath. Cassandra barked orders to us as we set ourselves up on the battlefield. Solas, Varric and I would cover the Soldiers and Seeker. If an opening would present itself I would try and get to the rift. 

Solas and Varric released bolts and ice as the demons closed in on two of the soldiers. I looked around at my terrain and saw the wall to the side. Quickly ducking, I ran to the wall and managed to scamper my way up, the hard stone pressed painfully into the splinters on my hand. Once my feet were firmly on the top of the stone wall, I remembered what Solas had done with the first rift. I stuck out my hand to the green thing and I could feel the pressure of magic or something build all around me. It was cementing itself in my palm, I could feel it wanting to be released. Clenching my hand into a fist, the rift seemed contract then fade a bit. There was a moment of tranquility on the battlefield. The Seeker and the soldiers had just finished off the last demon. 

Solas gave me a look of approval while Varric held two thumbs up. I smiled and waved at them. A bang coming from the rift almost knocked me off the wall. Looking to the rift I saw  _ more  _ demons. Two lesser terrors this time. This wasn’t fair! We just killed them. 

Everyone immediately resumed their fighting as I still stood there, confused and baffled. The stupid rift didn’t close like before, why? The soldiers and my party finished the demons off quickly, they didn’t stand a chance when we were all focused on them and not drawn every which way by wraiths. I huffed and perhaps out of spite, I held up my hand once again. I felt the energy once again form all around me and collect in my palm. I did what I did before and snapped my palm closed. The rift followed suit and it closed as well. I waited a second, waiting for more demons to pop out but no. Nothing.

A small excited squeal escaped me as I jumped. I couldn’t help the victory dance I did. Climbing down from the wall my companions came over to meet me.

“Sealed, as before. You are becoming quite proficient at this.” Solas gave me a nod. I smiled back at him. 

Varric gave me another thumbs up and then looked to the Breach that dominated the sky. “Let’s hope it works on the big one.” I couldn’t help but agree. Maybe if I closed the Breach, mamae could find me. I imagined the look of pride that would be on her face. She’d ruffle my hair and praise me for my bravery. The Keeper would see how responsible I had been, she’d have no choice but to give me my Vallaslin! Ha, I could picture it now, me strutting around the clan showing off my blood writing. The hunters wouldn’t make fun of me any longer, I’d be an adult like them. 

Drawing me from my daydream, the soldier turned to me, a look of awe about them. “The prisoner, the kid? Then you…?” I froze before looking behind her to see the Seeker motioning for me to nod, or to say something. I wasn’t quite sure. 

“Um, yes, that’s me?” I paused and I could all but feel Cassandra's disapproval. “I was happy to help in any way I could.” I beamed still unsure of what exactly I was supposed to say. But the soldier didn’t seem to notice instead she nodded. 

“Then you have my sincere gratitude.” She nodded, then turned to Cassandra. Who gave her orders to go to the valley. Solas commented something about it being clear of demons. 

Cassandra lead us further down the path. “Down the ladder. That’s the way to the temple.” I groaned in reluctance. Why did the gods even make ladders? Can’t we just use stairs for everything? Please? Was that a little too much to ask? Solas and Varric saw my discomfort so the plastered themselves one before and one after me. It was comforting to know that they had my back. It was comforting to see someone be genuinely concerned for once.

I climbed down only for my feet to hit the ground and see  _ another _ ladder. The parties banter distracted me mainly from the cursed wooden death traps. 

“So… holes in the Fade don’t just  _ accidentally _ happen right?” The dwarf questioned as we made it down the ladder and continued down a steep hill. 

Solas pulled his staff from his back and used it to brace himself as we continued down. “If enough magic is brought to bear, it  _ is _ possible,” he deemed, almost losing traction on the snow.

“But there are easier ways to make things explode,” Varric quipped.

Solas concluded, “That is true.” 

The Seeker interrupted with an authoritative tone. “We will consider  _ how _ this happened once the immediate danger is past.” She glanced at me but then shook her head. We rounded a large rocky outcrop and the sheer size of the Breach was obvious. To say that it was just huge was an understatement. Its size seemed to be slowly growing, the magic that literally dripped from it only further emulating how truly humungous the thing was. Not to mention that tingling sensation of magic that now cascaded over my skin. Errr. I shivered to try and relieve myself of the feeling. 

We came to a small plateau or old room of broken and crumbling stone. “The Temple of Sacred Ashes,” Solas said at my side. 

Varric shook his head. “What’s left of it.” We moved forward through the stone courtyard thing. 

“That is where you walked out the Fade and our soldiers found you. They said a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was.” Cassandra commented. So I had fallen out of that thing? All the way from the top? Or was I just from the bottom? How did I not make an elf pancake? Who was the woman she mentioned? Was it Mamae? Was it the reason why I hadn't died?

“I wonder what Mamae would think,” I asked quietly, almost to myself. But the others heard the comment. Solas had a neutral expression, but the Seeker and Dwarf shared a look. No one commented on my little quiet outburst as we continued on. 

We jumped down a small wall and emerged in a field of ash and corpses. The smell of burning flesh was prominent. My stomach threatened to let go of its contents, though I assumed there wouldn’t be much in there. 

Fire still burned wagons and bodies that dotted the landscape. Bodies, no people frozen in ash stood sentry at on the stone, expressions of agony etched into the ash. How could an explosion do  _ this _ ? Cause such suffering. I stepped gingerly over bones and skulls. I tried to keep my eyes from looking at the sheer carnage in front of me, but they were drawn to the each and every body and skull. I noted the surroundings trying to picture where I was in correlation to when Mamae and I had been here. The landscape was beaten and the crumbling. 

I huffed shaking my head to try and get away from the smell  and pressed forward, the others now changing their pace to keep up. "Keeper, where's the fire?" The dwarf shouted coming up from behind me, almost at a full jog. I stopped and stared blankly at him, was he blind? I looked to the side at all the burning corpses,  _ corpses  _ that used to be  _ people _ , and then back to him.  

"Everywhere." 

Varrics stared blank-faced at me as his pace slowed slightly. We continued on for another few minutes, making our way through the devastation. Until we came along a familiar scene. 

“Our camp!” I shouted. I broke off from the group and ran to the statues. I heard cries of protest from behind me but I didn’t care.

It’s hard to describe what I felt when I saw the remnants of the stone ladies holding bowls out of the corner of my eye. It was fear and hope all at once. I searched the rubble and ashes until my eyes landed on a charred form. I froze at its horrid sight. Hands raised as if trying to shield themselves from the explosion. It’s eyes and mouth open as if it were still screaming as the force of the explosion-charred its flesh. The body had on a robe and attached to the back of it in a charred holder was the remains of a wooden staff.

Mamae had a staff like that. 

I started to shake my head. No this couldn’t be her. No. it had to be someone else. Mamae was going to come find me. Mamae wasn’t gone. Wasn’t dead. I felt wetness slide down my cheek. My hands came up to my mouth as I tried to stifle my sobs. I feel to my knees, they were no longer able to hold my now trembling body. 

“Mamae-” I cried out, my voice cracking. “Mamae…” It felt like my entire world had been crushed like the world had just turned dark and it was only me and the charred corpse, no my mom, in front of me. I could smell her burnt skin, see the horror on her face. The pale lines of June no longer traced her face. Her black hair no longer cascaded down her back in a tight braid. 

I reached out to the body with my marked hand, the reason why all of this had occurred. And horror struck me. If the mark was the key and the only clue as to what happened, maybe, maybe I did cause the explosion. Maybe I did cause all this, cause the destruction, cause the Breach, cause mamae to die.... 

The thought terrified me. And I slowly brought my hand back to my chest, scared that I would still cause her pain. Pain like that etched into her face. I began to sob again, though this time quieter. Until a comforting hand drew me from my sorrow. Looking up I saw Solas, Varric, and Cassandra all looking at me. Their sympathies plain across their face. 

I let out a raspy breath, my body numb as launched myself at Solas wrapping my arms around him. I didn’t care that he froze under my embrace. I just needed something, someone. I wanted the comfort of mamae’s hugs, I wanted her to ruffle my hair and call me by my nickname. I didn’t want to be ‘Keeper’ and I sure as the gods didn’t want to be ‘the prisoner’. I wanted to be Sora of clan Lavellan, daughter of Naema of clan Lavellan and Nerien of clan Leanos. 

I wanted to go home. 

I wanted ma mamae. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me awhile to get this chapter out... I really have no excuse. But I hope that it will suffice. Thank you guys for all the recent comments and kudos, it means a lot (shout out to Kinako for all the inspiration they've given me to write!)
> 
> Please comment, or hand me suggestions. I love to hear from all of you!


	4. Hide and Seeker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora finally (after 3 chapters) makes it to The Breach and closes it. The Seeker and her play some hide and seek.

I was numb. Everything felt numb. 

It’s like my body was thrown into the snow and left there for days, my mind only focusing on the charred remains of mamae as calloused hands pulled me away and lead me down a path. I clutched onto wool robes as tears flowed down my face. Solas helped me stand as I stifled my sobs. The word ‘mamae’ tumbling from my lips as I tried to catch my breath from crying. It didn’t work.

Cassandra, Varric and Solas all lead me to the temple. I noticed nothing about my surroundings as we entered I was so focused on holding onto Solas’s hand, on to something that kept me grounded. Kept the thoughts of my mamae from my mind. 

But it didn’t work. I left her there. She wanted me to go get food, she wanted me to stay out of trouble. I failed her. I let her die. 

Looking down at the mark, I felt the tears starting to well in my eyes. It was because of that stupid, idiotic, ass mark that mamae was dead. A mark that I probably caused. 

I killed mamae. 

The thought made me numb. I wanted to argue the point, but argue to who? I couldn’t tell it to anyone. They all probably thought I did it. That I had killed their chantry lady. That I had killed all these people. I didn’t, did I? If I did, then I was to blame for mamae. 

The cleric guy on the bridge was right. Maybe I should be executed. It’s what I deserved. The clan wouldn’t let me back; I’d killed their first. The shems would kill me flat out for even the smallest link to their religion leader lady.  I couldn’t go to the dwarves, I didn’t even know where the dwarves lived, let alone get there. 

I didn’t even want to go home. I didn’t want to look the Keeper in the eyes and tell her how I murdered mamae. I couldn’t.

I had nowhere to go.

I was alone.

I was a murderer. 

Solas unhooked me from his sleeve as we met the lady with the hood on, a bow attached to her back. I looked up to acknowledge her but then buried myself back into the elf’s tunic sleeve with little protest. 

“I take it she found her mother's remains?” She stated coldly. Mother’s remains. She was my mamae! How dare this shem just refer to her as remains?! My hands tightened in the fabric and the mage only moved to give me the most amount of the sleeve possible. 

The Seeker sighed. “By the gates. We came as fast as we could.” I didn’t bother looking at their reactions. They didn’t care. I was an elf. Mamae was an elf. They were part of the Chantry, the Chantry didn’t care about us. We were just bodies to do their work. They weren't going to care about me, about mamae. I was just someone that had something they wanted to use.  “Leliana, have your men take up positions around the temple,” the human warrior added. Before I was once again pried off of Solas’ sleeve. 

She looked at me, her face soft as she bent down to my height. “This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?” I looked at her, drawing my brows together. She was an idiot. I was nothing to her, nothing to them. Mamae dying was just something to be thrown off. 

I looked up to her, then the Breach. I caused this. They want my help, but they only care about the green thing on my hand.  Mamae would want me to help. But mamae was dead, she can’t want anything anymore. Falon’din has already taken her away. I was alone. 

But I still had what mamae had thought of me. Her words and teaching to guide me, she would want me to help. To make sure that other people, other elves didn’t have to find the one they loved encased in ash. The shem Seeker did say it could swallow the world. That meant the clan was in danger. 

I had already failed mamae, I wasn’t going to fail them. “Only for mamae. Not for you.” I sniffled my head down. The Seeker lead us down towards the main rift. Solas made a quip or comment on it, I wasn’t sure. My focus either on my feet or the Breach that loomed above. 

I didn’t remember the voices from the temple.

I didn’t answer the Seeker when she asked me questions.

I didn’t listen as they tell me to prepare to face a demon.

I just wanted my mamae, and I was focused on making her proud.

When I heard my own voice did I really start draw myself back into the moment. Soldiers with swords, shields, maces and bows all lined the base of the cavern that I stood in. Varric was perched up on a overhanging lip a tier above me. Solas was almost plastered to my side, or it was probably me the one so close to him. He was rigid, but seemed not to voice his need for space. That or he did and I was to far stuck in my own world to actually acknowledge him.

_ “Get away from her, you monster!” _ My voice rang through the air. The Seeker immediately turned to me, her sword lowered, but still bared.

“That was your voice.” She started towards me. “Most Holy called out to you. But...” Suddenly there a flash of white, like looking into a fire when you put pine cones in it and they heat, but only brighter. Misted forms an elderly lady in robes formed before the rift.  She was held by some sort of red light, another key figure  was before her. He had red glowing eyes. 

Why was this so familiar? Why did its outline feel like I’d seen it? Not voicing my confusion or questions, I continued to watch as a small figure with blackish-brown curls entered through big door. 

“That’s me!” I shout, only to be met with my own voice from the mist. 

_ “Get away from her you monster!”  _ It sounded the same, but it was also...different like my voice was in a cave. It was odd. 

_ “Run while you can, warn them.”  _ The elderly woman beckoned to the people watching. She was trying to warn them. To warn the people in the Conclave. To make sure no one died in the blast. To make sure that elves, humans and dwarves all got away. So that mamae could get away. 

The vision then shifted to the large misted figure with red eyes. His voice boomed, “We have an intruder. Slay the elf.” He wanted to kill me. I looked up to the Breach above me. It wasn’t me. I didn’t cause this. It was the misted man. He made the explosion, he killed mamae, killed all of them!

I wanted to punch that misted man in the face. 

No. 

I wanted him dead.

I wanted him dead for everything he’d done. I wanted him dead for killing mamae. I wanted him dead for hurting all those people. I just wanted him dead.

“You were there! Who attacked? And the Divine, is she…? Was this vision true? What are we seeing?” The Seeker marched up to me waving her sword in front of her. Taking an instinctive step back, I raised my hands to shield myself as I spoke. 

“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” I said, my hands still out.  Solas quickly came to my side, blocking me from the Seeker. His face neutral as he spoke. 

“Echoes of what happened here. The Fade bleeds into this place.” The Seeker seemed to take this as an answer, I wasn’t sure how, but it worked. He then pointed to the rift above us. It looks just like a giant, green, jagged line floating in the sky. It hummed with something that made my skin crawl. Mamae would have know what it was. She would have told me.  “This rift is not sealed, but it is closed… albeit temporarily. I believe with the mark, the rift can be opened and then sealed properly and safely. However, opening the rift will likely attract attention from the other side.”

Cassandra nodded then turned back to all the soldiers that gathered around them. “That means demons. Stand ready!”  She left me standing there with Solas as she made her way around the little bowl-shaped valley or divot we were in. I think it’s a divot. Or at least what a divot was. Shaking my head, I looked to Solas. His eyes trained on the floating jagged line.

“So we have to open it?” My voice seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. Turning to me, he gave no expression with his response.

“Yes, da’len. It’s not closed properly. The ends do not match up perfectly in the waking and the dreaming.” He gestured to the rift. “That’s why you can still see it there.”

I paused for a moment looking from the rift to Solas. “So-- it’s like setting a bone?” He cocked his head. “If you break your leg and you don’t set the bone, it heals all wrong and you walk funny. But if you set the bone and then heal it you’ll be fine.” The elf smiled, nodding his head.

“An inept description, be it a vast simplification. But yes. It is like setting a bone.” I beamed at his praise. I probably shouldn't have smiled given the circumstances and the fire surrounding me, but I had made a connection. ‘An inept one,’ I mused to myself. 

“So we have to reset the rift so that the veil can heal,” I explained to myself. The elf nodded.

“Correct. But just like when setting a bone, it will bleed, and so to will the rift. Resulting in demons.”

I looked up to him. “So we stop the bleeding.”

“That is one way to put it.” He looked to the rift and then away from it with a stoic expression. “If only it were that easy.” 

“Why can’t it be?” 

Relaxing his posture, he turned to me, taking the staff from his back. “Because fate is never that kind to elves. Be prepared, and remain at a safe distance from whatever comes through to this side. I will be try and cover you as best I can.” What did he mean that fate is never kind to the elves? What did fate have against us? We’ve lost a lot but we’ve also gained a lot to. Perhaps fate was just trying to help. It made sure I lived, though it didn’t save mamae. Perhaps Solas was right, fate was never in our favour. 

I wanted to ask him, but I knew I wouldn’t get the answer I wanted. Somehow I knew that he would put it off. Made sense. The Breach still loomed over us, the mark bursting in my hand. “Pinky swear?” I asked quietly sticking out my hand, pinky extended.

Nodding, he stuck out his hand to do the same. “I pinky swear I will protect you.” We linked fingers and with that reassurance he turned away retreating to the ledge with Varric.

I let out a breath. Everyone was counting on me now. They all had their position. So now I had to take mine. I had to be an adult. I had to close the Breach. I had to kill the misted man. 

Kill. 

The word made me itch. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but I wanted him dead. No. Focus Sora. The Breach. Focus on the Breach. I took another breath in trying to steady myself while taking a stance under the unset rift I braced myself. “Creators protect me,” I prayed, as I raised my hand. 

 

The energy formed around me, stinging as if it were little needles all around me. It hurt. Tears stung at my eyes as I wanted to pull back. But I couldn’t. No I wouldn’t. I was doing this for Mamae, for these shems, for my clan, for the Dalish, for the elves, for Thedas.

Only the cracking of the lightning and magic in the air and the screech of a tall, spiked monster as I closed the rift, alerted me that I had success at resetting the bone-rift. Taking a step back, at the presence of the monster. It was huge, spiked and had giant whips of electricity. I watched as it tried to tear through soldiers with long, black talons. 

I felt my heart quicken at the sight of the living nightmare. “Fuck.” 

\--

I closed the rift. I closed the rift. 

The thought woke me as I was forced from the fade. I remembered the fight with the demon, how it had tried to tear us apart. How the Seeker delivered the final blow before with bloodied hands and an extra 4 points, I closed the reclosed the rift. After that, nothing just black. Not like the haze from ‘falling’ from the rift or whatever they said I did. It wasn’t like that. When I thought back to my memories, just after I left mamae, they were all just mist. Like the man with the red eyes and his form. That’s what I remember… But the battle, the demon, it just went black.

It was like the time I got hit in the head with the halla hoof, I didn’t remember anything and everyone had teased me because I couldn’t recall that I had tried to put a blanket on them when it kicked. I think I was 7 or 8 when that happened. Everyone had made fun of me for something, I couldn’t even remember. 

Suddenly, I heard a door squeak open, someone was here. My eyes shot open and I sat up out of instinct and I was met with an unfamiliar setting. I didn’t know where I was. Wooden ceilings boxed me in; I wasn’t in the snow, I wasn’t in a tent. I wasn’t even in that cell anymore. Without thinking, I jumped out of the bed, throwing back blankets and quickly scurrying to find an exit.

Something dropped on the floor sending me further into my flight. 

 

I felt the heat of the sun on my exposed skin. My bare feet trying desperately to escape the open air while warm blankets nuzzled me. It was warm, or at least the covered parts were. In all honesty, I didn’t want to move. It felt kind of like an Aravel, but less comfy? Compressed? I had room to move my legs and arms in all directions…. Where was I? 

 

Sitting up in what I realized was a bed, I was met with a small yip from a female elf. It took me about 2.3 seconds to realize I didn’t know where in the Gods’ name I was. So I bolted. There were no shackles to hold me this time, no swords pointed at me. But still. I wasn’t going to stay. As I jumped out of the bed, the woman fell to the ground before me. 

 

“Oh! I didn’t know you were awake, I swear!” She pleaded. I froze my hands in front of me. I guess I must’ve done something wrong because she fell to her knees. “I beg your forgiveness and your blessing. I am but a humble servant.” Servant? What? I took a step back, my legs hitting the bed, basically bragging that I had nowhere else to go. I could run around the elf. She was on her knees, she couldn’t get to me. But where would I run? Where would I go? Where was I?

 

“Wh-where am I?” I stuttered. 

 

The woman looked up at my comment.  “You’re back in Haven, my lady. They say you saved us. The Breach stopped growing, just like the mark on your hand. It’s all anyone has talked about for the last three days!” I was back at the Shems’ village? How? I was at the temple. They brought me back? Why? I had done what they asked, I made mamae proud hadn’t I? I closed the rift, I knew that much. But this made no sense. Why was she bowing to me? My head spun with the question. I braced myself to flee. I didn’t want to be here anymore. She said I saved them, stopped the Breach from growing. I looked down to my hand, the green stuff no longer oozing out of it. In fact, it didn’t tingle at all. Not like when I woke up in the dungeon room thing. It was as if it was calm.

 

“I don’t care what they talked about.” I started, looking past her to the door. “I just did what mamae would have done. Why is the green thing not sparking?”

 

The round-ear looked up at me with a scared/curious look. I couldn’t tell which was which, but she certainly wasn’t mad that I had asked about it. “I--I don’t know. I’m sure Lady Cassandra will want to know you’ve awakened. She said ‘at once’!” I didn’t want to see the Seeker. I had done what the shems had wanted. Now I needed to go. 

 

Go where? 

 

To the clan? I could tell them what I knew, tell em’ something. I wasn’t sure what, but it would be something. And something big. 

 

I doubt the Keeper would believe me, though. What would she say when I can back without mamae?

 

I winced at the thought of me having to explain to her about the ash, the explosion, mamae encased in ash. I felt tears start to brim my eyes. I didn’t want to think about this, I didn’t want to have to tell the Keeper, I didn’t want people bowing to me, I didn’t want to go see the stupid shem Seeker, I wanted everything to be like before. I just wanted to leave.

 

Running past the elf who was trying to get up, I bolted for the door. Opening it a crack, I managed to slip outside. The cold winter air nipping at me as I left the warmth of the cabin. As I started to run, people lined the walkway. Halting in my tracks as I heard them whispering and pointing to me. 

“That’s Her. That’s the Herald of Andraste. They said when she came out of the Fade, Andraste herself was watching over her.”

“Hush! We shouldn’t disturb her!”

“Why did Lady Cassandra have her in chains? I thought Seekers knew everything.”

“It’s complicated. We were all frightened after the explosion at the Conclave.”

“It isn’t complicated. Andraste herself blessed her.”

Herald of Andraste? My name wasn’t herald, and I wasn’t anything to some shems burning lady. I didn’t care. Instead of waiting for them to turn away, I scurried away behind the wooden cabin I had just come from.  No. I wanted them to go away. I didn’t want them to look at me, to look at the freak. 

Pulling my knees up to chest, I sat there behind the cabin. Wood at  my back and the cold winds of the mountain assaulting me from the left. I just sat there. I didn’t go see the Seeker, I didn’t go to their chantry. I just sat in the snow behind the cabin. I wore a beige tunic and some baggy trousers, but no shoes. I was cold. Yeah. The constant shivering as I sat there only reaffirmed that. 

Even with the wind biting at my exposed skin, it was better than going back to those people. All the people watching and whispering at me. 

I didn’t like it. No. I didn’t want to be a freak, I just wanted my mamae. 

The thought made me colder as I tried to pull my knees closer to my chest. I had done her proud. But as I looked back up into the sky like I had done so many times hiding behind the cabin. I knew that I had failed. The Breach was still there. It didn’t look as big, and the mark didn’t hurt. But it was still there. I hadn’t closed the stupid thing. 

I continued to look up at the sky as steel boots made their way around the building, their steps crunching the snow under their weight. I looked over half expecting it to be someone to come and punish me for hiding behind the cabin, or worse for not being able to do what they wanted of me. But no. It was just the Seeker. 

I didn’t try to run. I doubted I would make it far with how cold I was. All I could do really was avert my gaze from her. She probably was mad. I would be too, in her boots. 

The warrior walked carefully beside me and squatted right at my eye level. Looking up, I met her stare. “I was told you’d awaken. Though I had expected you to go to the Chantry like I requested. ” She was scolding me. Great. “When you did not show up we became worried.” Wait. Worried? Why would a shem be worried for her? I hadn’t done what I was told. I couldn’t close the Breach, couldn't follow instruction to find her, couldn’t even climb a Creator's damned ladder without failing or falling off. Why would they be worried about me? The mark. The thingy on her hand. They weren’t worried about her, they were worried for it.

“No,” I stated putting my head back into my knees. 

“No?” She inquired, her accent making the word have an edge to it. “No, what?” 

“No, you weren’t worried about me.” I huffed not daring to raise my head. “You only care about my hand.” 

She didn’t move or respond, neither of us did. I shivered as another gust of wind came and chilled me. My breath a fog haze in front of me as I bit back the cold. “Does it trouble you?” She finally spoke glancing down at my hand.

Trouble me? Yes, by the creators, yes! Everything was troubling me. I was cold, I was alone, and nobody here wanted to help me. They all just wanted the mark. The stupid, idiotic mark. The mark that was supposed to close the Breach. Isn’t that what Solas had said it was supposed to do? Close it? Well it bloody well didn’t work now did it, eh? 

I was nothing to them but a failure for not closing it. For letting, everything happen. “It wasn’t enough to close the Breach, it wasn’t enough…” I looked up to her. “If it can’t even close the hole, what’s the point of it?”

“You did everything we asked of you,” she comforted. “and more.”

I snapped at her. I did everything they asked? Then why in the Creators name was the Breach still in the sky? Why was there an elf lady bowing to me? Why were people staring at me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Was this some kind of punishment? A punishment that Mamae had to pay…?

“Why was I given the stupid mark?” I snapped at her.  “ _ I  _ didn’t do anything!” I shook it at her. “Because of this the people are treatin’ me weird. Because of this, I almost died!” I stood now, my legs protesting to the movement. “Because of this green abomination on my gods’ forbidden hand my mamae is dead! I will never see her again. She will never hug me or give me lavender tea when I’m sick or tired. Because of this thing, I will never hear her voice again, I will never be able to lay awake at night when I’m not supposed to and hear her sing to me.” I felt tears stream down my face. “She’s gone and in her place is this.” I clenched my left hand. Cassandra looked away from me before standing from her previous position, her arms crossing over her chest and gaze averted. 

“I apologize.” Her voice was soft. “We asked much of you without thinking of the consequences of it all. It was not something we wanted to push on you.” 

“I just want to go home,” I said solemnly. Cassandra uncrossed her arms and put a hand on my shoulder. She wore a gauntlet, so it was a metal. Cold metal. 

“If you’d like we can discuss that after we go inside.” I sniffled and wiped my nose. 

“Okay--” With that she lead me back around the cabin. The people from before were gone, but there were still people flitting about the little village. I got the occasional stare. But it wasn’t like when I had walked out of the cabin. No. The Seeker was helping in that way at least. We ventured up a pebbled path. Past large wooden doors that had two shems in armor guarding it. Their backs a little straighter as we walked passed them. 

Up a set of stairs and past a little campfire where a Varric was sitting. The Seeker made a small disgusted noise when the dwarf spotted us and made his way over.  I waved to him but Cassandra pushed on a hand on my shoulder pushing me forward from behind. Giving the dwarf a small smile, I nodded and carried on with the Seeker. As much as I wanted to see Varric, Cassandra at least was going somewhere warm. Or at least I hoped it was warm. She said inside right? Inside meant a fire. 

But Varric was also at a fire. A fire outside, though. But inside warmth and a possible fire. No snow. No wind. Plus maybe I could ask for a blanket. Blankets were warm. Yes, blankets. 

Cassandra lead us to a large building that looked like the one she had hauled me out of when I had first woken up. I didn’t have to go in there, did I? 

She nodded to two guards that opened the doors for us. 

We had to go inside. 

The interior was just like it had been when I first came here. Decorated with large curtains, candles, and statues, light from outside shown in from multicoloured glass. We walked along a red carpet to the back wall where there was a large oak door. The warmth of the Chantry was already seeping into my skin as Cassandra opened the door. A large table greeted us and two guards stood and, well, guarded the entrance. 

The cleric guy from up by the bridge was there his face red as he pointed at me. “Chain her! I want her prepared for travel to the capital for trial.” The two guards didn’t move at his yelling.

Cassandra waved her hands. “Disregard that, and leave us.” They bowed and left us alone in the room. The hooded lady, Leliana, was also there, just behind the table watching the exchange.

The shem came up to Cassandra almost spitting his words in her face. “ You walk a dangerous line, Seeker.”

She didn’t waver at his words. “The Breach is stable, but it is still a threat. I will not ignore it.” She was right. I had failed, but it was still there. Still, something that could hurt more people. But it was still there because I hadn’t been strong enough. 

“I tried. I’m sorry.” I bowed my head. 

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t excuse the deaths of thousands and the death of the Divine.” I looked away from him and shuffled my feet. “The elf failed, Seeker. The Breach is still in the sky. For all you know, she intended it this way.”

“I do not believe that.” Cassandra defended. “Have a care, Chancellor. The Breach is not the only threat we face.” 

The hooded lady spoke rounding the table. ““Someone was behind the explosion at the Conclave. Someone Most Holy did not expect. Perhaps they died with the others – or have allies who yet live.” The misted man. The one from the temple. He did this. He caused the Breach. He was the one that killed mamae. We had to find him. We had to. 

“ _ I _ am a suspect?” the robed shem squealed.

“You, and many others.”

“But  _ not _ the prisoner.”

Cassandra shook her head and scowled. “I heard the voices in the temple. The Divine called to her for help.”

“So the child's survival, that  _ thing _ on her hand – all a coincidence?” He took a step towards me. Instinctively, I retreated closer to the Seeker. She seemed to be the only one in this room, well that and the hooded lady, to be on my side. The cleric was nothing but a bully

Cassandra shook her head; her gaze turned back to me. I felt small under it. Like I was a small little ant under a glass shard heating up under the intensity. I blinked. That was a great analogy.  “Providence. The Maker sent her to us in our darkest hour.” Providence? 

“I have no idea what that word means.”

“It means that the Maker smiles on you and sent you to us in our time of need.” The Seeker provided. 

Their Maker? Their god? Why would their god send an elf, a Dalish elf to help them? No. I was coming to the Conclave with mamae for help the clan. I didn’t do it because of their deity. I did it because mamae told me to. Because it was my duty to my clan. 

“The only person who sent me here was my Keeper and ma mamae. No God did this to me.” I stated my head and shoulder squared to meet the warriors. I would not submit, the Dalish never submit. Not to a shems god, not to the Breach, not to a shem. I am a strong Dalish elf and I didn’t need some providence to save me.  But I did survive. The Gods, my gods must've saved me. Must’ve done this to me. Who else would trust a Dalish but our own pantheon. “But why pick a kid?” The question formed on my lips.

“I do not know.” Cassandra provided. “No matter what you are, or what you believe, you are exactly what we needed when we needed it.” But that still didn’t answer why. Why I had been ‘chosen’. Why I had survived. Maybe it  _ was _ providence. Maybe it is the will of the gods that I help the elves. That I help the People. Maybe that’s what they want me to do. Maybe that’s why they gave me the mark. To save the elvhen people. 

I had no idea how to do that. 

The red-headed women now approached me, her calculated gaze drawing over me then to the warrior. My shoulders slumped a bit. She kind of reminded me of a vulture circling and waiting for the animal to die or at least until the previous predator left its kill. It was always graceful in its movements to descend, but it was also very cautious.  “The Breach remains and your mark is our only hope of closing it.”

“This is not for you to decide.” The cleric shrieked. Maybe he was the kill that she was trying to pick at.

Cassandra pulls out a huge book from, well I’m not sure where. It kind of just appeared in her hand. 

“That’s a halla sized book--” I said my mouth agape. The smell of leather and paper filing my senses. I loved books. We never really had books in the clan, not really outside the Keeper. But mamae being the first to her, we had connections. Mamae taught me to read common from them, taught me as much elvhen as she could. Her long black braid always hanging over her shoulder as she pulled me close and guided my fingers along the script. My favourite book wasn’t one from the Keeper’s personal library, no those ones always were about magic and history. Which were cool. But it was nothing like the tales of the Black Fox, an Orlesian noble, who later became a dashing thief and rogue. His adventures trying to escape Karolis and eventually befriending his enemy with sheer wit and charm I knew off by heart.  I was enthralled with him as a young girl even if he was an Orlesian shem. 

I would teach the other kids his adventures and we would act them out around the camp. I was the Black Fox clad in an old black tattered cloth tied around my neck. Anuon, my best friend, loved to play as Karolis with a few pieces of no-good armor from her father's crafting stall. Anuon loved to take her father's tools and use them as lock picks as we searched for treasure in the depths of old ruins overrun with Tevinter blood mages and giant spiders. We loved fighting giant spiders. Well, really big bushes with sticks pointing out. Ere’nan was there too some of the time. Ere’nan always loved to play the part of a dwarf named Bolek, the Foxes lesser known sidekick. He would crawl around us on his knees as we tried to outwit all the Antivan Crows and elders that chased us as we avoided taxes and saved nobles in distress all from the comforts of our little clan. It was fun. Up until some of the older hunters made fun of us for it. No one really wanted to play with me after that. They all thought it was childish and stupid. Well they were stupid. It was fun. No matter what the hunters said.

Cassandra slammed a big heavy thick book down on the table drawing everyone's attention in the room. Dust flew up from the pages, the little specs of it dancing in the light. It was a thick book, long sprawling handwriting was decorating the front, as well as a large eye. 

“You know what this is, Chancellor? A writ from the Divine, granting us authority to act. As of this moment, I declare the Inquisition reborn.” The Seeker backed the shem against the wall poking him in the chest as she continued. “We will close the Breach, we will find those responsible, and we will restore order with or without your approval.”

Red and basically frothing in rage the cleric leaves, his hands in fists at his side shaking as he slammed the door in his exit. The room was quiet as we all stared at the door. 

Leliana was the only one to move, she came up beside the table and directed my and well, Cassandra's attention back to the book on the table. 

“This is the Divine’s directive: rebuild the Inquisition of old.” Inquisition? Weren’t they the ones to find and kill people who didn’t follow the Chantry? Or was that something different? I didn’t know. Just the word ‘Inquisition’ didn’t exactly leave the best taste in my mouth. “Find those who will stand against the chaos. We aren’t ready. We have no leader, no numbers, and now no Chantry support.”

Cassandra stepped towards the book, tracing a hand over the eye on the cover.  “But we have no choice: we must act now. With you at our side.”

“What is 'the Inquisition of old,’ exactly? Sounds like somethin’ that people with lots of swords and shields were a part of. But not in a good way. Like a bad one. You know with a bunch of death and blood and war and stuff…” My voice trailed off as Leliana arched a brow.  Cassandra just gave me a blank stare. “Or not..”

Leliana leaned over the book. “It preceded the Chantry.: People who banded together to restore order in a world gone mad.”

“After, they laid down their banner and formed the Templar Order. But the Templars have lost their way. We need those who can do what must be done united under a single banner once more.” The Seeker added in kind. So I was a bit right. They were just a bunch of people in the same armor thinking that they were right. They just were some kind of chaos hero stoppers beforehand. 

“But you want to make me another one?”

“To stop the Breach and bring the perpetrator for the destruction of the Conclave to justice, yes.” The Seeker nodded.  “Help us fix this before it’s too late.” 

I bit my lip. They needed me? No, they needed the mark. Still… they needed me here to close the Breach and if they were bringing the misty man to justice, it would make mamaes death mean something. I had to help. It’s what mamae would have wanted. 

“I’m only a kid.” I started. I was a kid yeah, but I was still their only hope. The one person that could close the Breach. The one person to help them restore order to the chaos. I was a kid, but I could act the part of an adult. I was strong enough. I had to be. For mamae. “If it means mamae will get justice, then I’ll help. I want to help you restore order.” Leliana smiled as the Seeker stuck out her gauntleted hand. I took it and gave it a shake like how Varric had shown me.

I had the feeling that I had just trapped myself. Like a fox in a wolf's den. Like the Black Fox being lead to his own imprisonment by those he trusted. 

But I’d played him enough to know how to get out of every prison. The only question was: how many locks and wolves would I face?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm just going to apologise on every chapter for my tardiness. But hey, I'm Canadian, it's built into my blood. 
> 
> I promise the story will progress a little faster. I just wanted to elaborate on her moms death and her first reactions to the Conclave and Inquisition. She'll be meeting the advisors in the next chapter for sure. I can't wait to have her reunited with Cullen. It'll be fun. 
> 
> Thank you all for sticking with this, I really appreciate all of you and your comments. They give me life. (I love you all)


	5. We All Fall Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just the official formation of the Inquisition and the reintroduction of Cullen and Sora. Also, Sora gets hurt and Solas really doesn't know how to deal with children.

“What’s important is that your mark is now stable, as is the Breach. You’ve given us time, and Solas believes that a second attempt might succeed – provided the mark has more power. The same level of power used to open the Breach in the first place. That is not easy to come by.” Cassandra started pacing back and forth between me and the table with the map.

More power? They wanted to give the thing more power. That was stupid. It’d be like tryin’ to dissolve salt in a waterskin. You put too much in and the water doesn’t make the salt disappear and it ruins the prank.

“That’s stupid.” Cassandra halted and looked at me. “I said I wanted to help close the Breach and bring mamae justice, but you said nothin’ about putting more salt. Into the mark.”

“Salt?”

“Power.” I corrected. “Sorry.”  

“And people call me a pessimist.” She shook her head. As if on cue, the door to the room opened and with it a gust of cold wind that sent a shiver up my back. Two figures stood in the doorway, one with a furry coat thing on and the other wearing clothes that looked like they’d been spun from gold.

The furry one, a shem man with curly blond hair and a scruffy looking stubble of hair on his chin stepped forward. His hand gloved resting on the hilt of a sword. He looked familiar. “Sora, may I present Commander Cullen, leader of the Inquisition’s forc--”

“You’re the shem that helped mamae and me on the mountain!” I cut off the Seeker as I looked up at the man who had taken my side over that of his own soldier.

The shem, the Commander, had a look of sudden realization then a slight smirk crept upon his lips before he gave the Seeker and Leliana a quizzical look. “That I was. I see that you’ve gotten yourself in a little bit more trouble than the last time.” I held up my fingers about an inch apart earning me a small chuckle from the shem. “I’m pleased you survived at the least.”

“Me too.” I quipped, looking now to the woman made of gold who stood taking small notes on a large board with a lit melting candle on top.

“This is lady Josephine Montilyet, our ambassador, and chief diplomat,” Cassandra added for me. I inclined my head in a something akin to awestruck. She was just so, well pretty. She’s a shem. But she looked like she was the queen of Orlais or something the way to stood in the room. Her back straight, subtly demanding attention, yet not. I don’t know how to explain it she just was.  

“Andaran Atish'an,.” Josephine chimed, gracing me with a small bow.

Wait.

She spoke elvhen? A shem knew elvhen.

I looked up at her in question, “You know elvhen?”

She admitted. “You've just heard the entirety of it, I’m afraid.” I made a small ‘O’ with my mouth my head nodding, albeit in disappointment. Figures she didn’t know anything.

Cassandra placed a hand on my shoulder “And of course you know Sister Leliana.”

“My position here involves a degree of…”

“She is our spymaster.”

Leliana sighed. “Yes. Tactfully put, Cassandra.”

I looked over the two new additions to the room. Cullen, the nice elf-helping Commander, and Josephine, the shiny diplomat. Well, then we have Cassandra the Seeker and Leliana the scary red-headed lady who was a spymaster or something. No idea what that was. I’ll have to ask about that one.

So this is who was going to help me seal the Breach? These were the people who were planning on putting more power, more magic into the mark to make it stronger.  These were the people I trusted my life with. These were the people who I trusted to avenge mamae.

I bit my lip looking back over them, their faces searching mine. Something turned in my stomach. I couldn’t tell you for the life of me if it was fear, anxiousness, or just the thought of it all looming over me. But it wasn’t good. I knew that much.

“If you’ve gotta plan to close the Breach, I’m game.”

Cassandra nodded, “Sora, I mentioned that your mark needs more power to close the Breach for good.”

“Which means we must approach the rebel mages for help,” the Spymaster added.

Cullen leaned back, his weight shifting to his back leg making him seem to take up more of the room. “And I still disagree. The Templars could serve just as well.”

“We need power, Commander. Enough magic poured into that mark–” Cassandra was cut off by the Commander

“Might destroy us all. Templars could suppress the breach, weaken it so–”

Leliana tsked. “Pure speculation.”

Cullen’s voice commanded the room, “ _ I _ was a Templar. I know what they’re capable of.”

So he  _ was _ a Templar, mamae had been right about that when we first met him. The shem was a mage killer, yet he helped mamae and me. It all didn’t fit. It was people like him that made the clan keep movin’ for fear they’d get mamae or the Keeper. But he’d shown us kindness. Maybe he didn’t know mamae was a mage. That’s gotta be it. She didn’t broadcast her magic. She had a staff yeah. But anyone can have a walking stick. Right? But that only fooled stupid or dumb Templars or guards. I looked back at the man with the mantle; could this guy be in charge of all the Inquisitions battle-ready people, yet not notice mamae was a mage? It just didn’t fit.

Cullen also wanted to make the mark stronger using Templars. I understood using mages like Leliana had suggested. They move their hands in a certain way and poof it’ll work. But how could Templars even begin to help? Would they suppress it somehow? I’ve heard of Templars doing that. Where they somehow place like a magical blanket that dampens the magic of a mage. But that just wasn’t it was it? They didn’t have magic. They couldn’t cast something like that. My head spun with the idea. He was a Templar. A nice Templar. That’s all I needed to know. That and he wanted other Templars to help.

Not the most comforting of thoughts.

The golden lady stepped forward her clipboard swaying with her step. “Unfortunately, neither group will even speak to us yet.” She paused to write something down on her board quickly before, she returned to her explanation. “The Chantry has denounced the Inquisition – and you, specifically.” She pointed her quill in my direction.

Denounced me? I gave her a confused look. “They’re just the Chantry, can’t ya know, ignore ‘em or something?”

“‘Just the Chantry.’” Cullen chuckled softly. “Unfortunately for us, it’s not the entirety of the situation any longer. We can’t ‘just ignore them’.”

Josephine nodded to the Commander. “Some are calling you – a Dalish elf – the 'Herald of Andraste.’ That frightens the Chantry.”

“My apologies, Sora,” Josephine straightened herself, her regal aura filling the room.

I looked up at them in question. “But my names not Harold.” Josephine's lips pursed trying desperately to hide a smile. Cullen wasn’t so lucky as a small laugh escaped him. I said something wrong, hadn’t I? I bit my lip looking down at my feet.  

“‘Herald of Andraste’.” Cassandra corrected. “People saw what you did at the temple, how you stopped the Breach from growing. They have also heard about the woman seen in the rift when we first found you. They believe that was Andraste.

Leliana stepped forward towards me. “Even if we tried to stop that view from spreading–”

“Which we have not.” Cassandra sighed.

“The point is, everyone, is talking about you.”

Cullen looked down over his shining chest armor plate thing at me. “It’s quite the title, isn’t it? How do you feel about that?”

How did I feel about it? They thought me a herald. I didn’t know what a herald was, but it wasn’t good probably. Especially if it was about the burning ladies business or anything really to do with her. I am an elf. A dalish elf. I wasn’t anything to their shem saviour.

“I ain’t nothing to the Chantry lady. And not some herald either. I don’t wanna be given any more names. Especially none with  _ her _ in it. I’m a Dalish elf through and through, and proud of it.” I stood my ground. I was Dalish and these shems no matter how nice or regal will make a martyr, yes I know that word, out of me. Cassandra shook her head and Josephine wrote something down on her board.

“Something I’m sure the ‘Just the Chantry’ would agree with,” Cullen added. 

Josephine looked up from her writing. “The remaining Clerics have declared it blasphemy, and we heretics for harboring you.”

“Chancellor Roderick’s doing, no doubt,” The Seeker scoffed to the diplomat.

“It limits our options. Approaching the mages or templars for help is currently out of the question,” the diplomat said, her quill bounding about between her fingers. So these people weren’t going to help us? I don’t follow. They denounce us and refuse to help when the Breach could threaten them all.

“Are these people keeping their heads in the sand? There’s a hole in the sky. I don’t care about mages, Templars or whatever the Chantry people say or don’t say. There’s somethin’ out there right above our heads spitting out demons faster and more out of control than a halla on ice.”

Cullen shook his head. “They do know that it is a threat, they just don’t think we can stop it.” But we’re the only ones doing anything! No one else was at the Breach when we tried to close it when I failed. No one else, not the Chantry, not the mages, not the Templars. It was the Inquisition. It was Varric, Cassandra, Solas, Leliana and me. These people knew nothing of the demons and destruction that the Breach was unleashing on everyone.

Josephine sighed. “The Chantry is telling everyone that you’ll make it worse.”

“Worse? How could I make it worse? There’s a green mess launching demons at people. I only want to help!” My fists clenched at my side. I tried everything I could. Cassandra even said they asked more from me then they should have. I lost everything, I lost mamae, yet they think me some sort of villain in a tale to ‘make it worse’.

The mark on my hand started to warm against my skin.

“There is something you can do,” Leliana said. I felt my hands loosen slightly. “A Chantry Cleric by the name Mother Giselle has asked to speak to you. She is not far, and knows those involved far better than I. Her assistance could be invaluable.”

But she’s a Chantry lady. Didn’t we literally just go over that? The Chantry didn’t want to help. That they thought I would make it worse. “Why would someone from the Chantry help a declared heretic or something that was gunna ‘make it worse’?” I almost spat the words at the Spymaster.

“I understand she is a reasonable sort. Perhaps she doesn’t agree with her sisters? You’ll find Mother Giselle tending to the wounded in the Hinterlands near Redcliffe.”

Cullen raised his chin, his hands resting casually on the pommel of his sword. “Look for other opportunities to expand the Inquisition’s influence while you’re there.”

“We need agents to extend our reach beyond this valley,” Josephine added. “And you’re better suited than anyone to recruit them.” I doubted that, but Josephine looked like she knew something. I guess she could be right. People might listen to a kid. They might listen to me.  

“In the meantime, let’s think of other options. I won’t leave this all to the Herald,” Cassandra said in conclusion. Several nods from everyone, myself included ended the little introduction. I liked the two new people. Cullen already was in my good books. He helped mamae, even if he was a Templar. Josephine looked like a noble. She had the posture of one and what seemed to be the manners. I just hoped she wasn’t one of the elf-hating ones. She seemed to nice to me to be one of  _ those _ people. Yet I didn’t know nothin’ about her.

Leliana was a whole different story. She was the Spymaster. The master of spies. The spy lady. Just a bit scary. Mamae would’ve wanted me to stay away from her, I just know it. Something was off. It could be the way she walked, talked or watched. Yeah, it was the watching. The Spymaster creeped the snot right out of me.

Finally Cassandra. She was the one I trusted the most out all of ‘em. I fought with the Seeker. I knew she had my back and I hoped at least I could be good enough to have hers. Though I still think they’re all just using me for the mark. If I was anyone else they probably wouldn’t be like this. I’d be on my way home now if I was an adult. I wouldn’t have to stay.

__

Cassandra escorted me out of the Chantry, though not before grabbing me a warm pair of boots that were a size too big and a jacket that looked more like a dress than anything else. Josephine assured me that they would get someone to come and fit me for outerwear. Even with all my pestering that I was fine with what I had. Sure I would be cold, but I would have been fine. Cold can’t hurt a Dalish. We’ll just lose a toe and say ‘we’re fine.’

Actually never mind, maybe getting warmer clothes and boots would be a good thing.

Shaking my head, I started off down a path to my left alone. Cassandra had to go train some soldiers or something. She said she’d be right outside the gate if I needed her. I wasn’t used to this. People just leaving me alone. In the clan, we always stuck together. It was how we survived. Together.

We ate together, slept together, hunted together… Well, the hunters hunted. Everyone else just kind of setup aravels and made the camp livable. It was a good system. One that worked. Our clans were tight knit communities where every child was raised by the people and not just by the parents. Every child, mage or no, was treated the same. Everyone had to pull their weight. If you didn’t you’d be punished or worse, kicked out of the clan.

I’d only seen one person do that. It was a city elf that had come lived with us. He tried his best, but eventually, he couldn’t develop the skills to survive with us. He even was so clumsy or foolish at hunting that he almost killed one of the lead hunters and lead Templars right to our camp. The hunters had been wise enough to divert the Templars long enough to get the mages and children out of the camp so that they could pass by without much hassle. There was that, and when he was practicing archery to close to the camp, he almost hit the Keeper with a rogue arrow. Luckily she was able to erect a barrier quick enough. After that, she sent him away and moved the clan far from the spot. Everyone said he was a menace and a harel.

I never really understood any of it.

Bristling at the memory, the wind shifting through the small village of Haven leaving my core colder than I had been outside my cabin. The dirt path went down past three buildings. There were people dashing about them. Many of them took one look at me and either hid or stopped in their tracks. It was weird, to say the least. It felt like they were watching me, expecting something of me. I didn’t know what I had to give them.

I was to them, the ‘Herald of Andraste’.

A title, not a person.

How did Cassandra phrase it? I fell out of the Breach and at least stabilized it, therefore they think me holy. Or associated with Andraste. Such a stupid idea. If anything wouldn’t it be with my own Gods? Did the shems not take that into account? Perhaps I'm the Herald of Mythal or June. Probably Mythal. She’s the Goddess of love, justice, and motherhood… yeah maybe not.

I looked up to the swirling mass of clouds over my head then to my mark. They didn’t seem really ‘lovey’ or ‘justicy’. not even 'motherly'.... definitely not motherly.  Perhaps it was Falon’din, wasn’t he supposed to be the ‘Friend of the Dead’. There were a lot of people that died. Mamae included. Maybe he was responsible… could he have been the mass of swirling mist at the temple? No. That would mean he meant to kill everyone that he meant for mamae to die.

But they must've saved me. 'Providence’ and all.

My mind wandered far on the thoughts trying to peg which God I must've earned the 'providence’ of. I was distracted enough not to see the icy stairs as I went ass over teapot crashing into the dirt covered snow at the bottom.

Tears stung my eyes as I tried to move from my prone position to a kneeling one. But as I moved my right foot pain shot through me and the tears spilled over their brim.

I couldn't move my ankle without the pain flashing up my leg. Somehow through my own stubbornness and Creators damned crying, I managed to crawl to another set stairs. One step after another the pain struck me. Each time I had to catch my breath as the tears started up again. I could do this. I could make it up those stupid stairs. A dumb ankle won’t won’t stop me.

I was halfway up the set of stairs, “da’len?” A voice called from the top of the stairs. I looked up to see a brow knitted bald elf standing over me. Solas.

Shuffling to the side and stifling my tears as best I could, I tried to hide the injury from his view. I didn’t need his help. I was fine. I didn’t need his help.  He quickly came to my aid, though, helping me out of turn over from my stomach-crawling position to just sitting on the stairs. As I moved the foot, I whimpered, even as much as I tried to hide it from the elf.

Solas attention quickly turned to the leg.

“I’m fine.” I quickly said, wiping my new coat’s sleeve across my dripping nose.

“Clearly not.”

“Am too!”

He sighed. “Da’len, this is no time for you to be childish. You’re injured.”

I shuffled back away from him. “I told ya I’m fine!”

“Sora, please. At least, let me look at your foot.” I looked away from him and down the stairs that I had struggled to get up to. My jaw clenched as I nodded. Solas gently pulled off my boot and examined my foot. When the cold hit the warm skin, I flinched causing my foot to shoot more pain through my leg. “Easy, da’len.” He soothed as his warm hands met with my skin. “You’ve done quite a bit of damage to the joint. The skins not broken anywhere which is a good sign. That means it’s not a break. Though the swelling is making it harder to tell.  It’s probably fractured.”

“Am I gunna lose my foot?” I stared blank-faced at him. What if I lost my foot? Imagine how stupid that’d be. Me having to get my food chopped off just because I was too busy to see dumb stairs with a lil bit of ice on ‘em.

“No.” He chuckled. “You should be able to keep all of your appendages for today.” He paused examining the foot further before he let out a sigh and standing from the stairs. “Come, I have elfroot in my cabin. It’ll help with the pain and swelling.”

I took a hand he offered me balancing precariously on my left foot. My boot laying forgotten on the stairs as we made our way up to a set of three cabins all facing in on each other. Solas supported my weight on his shoulder, helping me hope along to the cabin closest to our right. With a flick of his hands the door opened. That awe of the magic I saw didn’t really distract from the cold and pain I was feeling, but it was close.

The elf lead me to a large wooden chair off to the side by a paper-covered desk. Ink and little petals and leaves from plants seemed to all but thrown onto the surface of the desk. Little notes made in the margins of the pages. Or what I thought were margins. It was all kind of an organized chaos.

“Sit.” He instructed pointing to the chair. Obediently I sat. I watched Solas scavenge around his cabin, picking up a satchel, rifling through it then emerging with a few plants. He walked towards me extending the plats, or at least their leaves to me. “Chew on this.”

I took the leaves and examined them. It was elfroot. Dried, not fresh, but it should at least help. In the clan, we always made it into tea before we drank it. Helped with the bitter taste. “Can I have it in tea?”

He made a bit of a disgusted face at the notion. “I don’t have any water to make it into tea for you.”

“Just use the snow outside.” I reasoned. “Ya can use some of it then heat it with yer magic.” Solas rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Sathan (please) da’len, just chew the leaves.”

I shook my head. “But they’re bitter!” He didn’t say anything as he continued to look at my foot. The second he touched my foot, I reeled back as if I'd been struck. A yip of pain escaped me. “That hurt!”

“It wouldn’t have if you would’ve chewed on the elfroot,” Solas stated, clearly irritated.

“I would’ve eaten the elfroot if it was made into a tea.” I crossed my arms over my chest, glaring at him. He returned my look until he sighed shaking his head and made his way outside taking his satchel with him. He returned seconds later a bowl of snow in his hand, flames licking the bottom of the container. Already there was steam coming up off of the contents before he stuck out his hand for the leaves. Trying to avert my smile, I handed them to him. We sat in silence as the leaves of the elfroot steeped in the tea. I moved side to side in my chair but refrained when it irritated my foot.

Solas thrust the bowl of tea to me, the flames from his hands extinguishing within a second of the container leaving his hands.

The tea was still pretty bitter. But I dreaded asking him for any honey or other sweetener to put in it. Other than that I downed the entire bowl the contents a little bit too hot, but by the way Solas was glaring at me with little entertainment and just a smidge of disgust, I didn’t want to try upsetting him. He was already helping me. I probably shouldn’t have been this much of pain…

With the tea gone, I placed the bowl on the table before the elf went back to work on my foot. I felt the warmth of healing magic consume my foot. It prickled along the top of my skin, like little insect legs, just you know, warmer and less creepy. When I was able to move my toes Solas broke the silence.

“How did you even manage to get a hairline fracture?” He sighed, agitated though curious.

I played with the sleeves of my jacket avoiding looking at my foot and him. “Well… I um… I was walkin’ and thinkin’ and I fell down the stairs…”

Solas raised a quizzical brow at me. “You just fell?”

“Yeah…” I said quietly.  I don’t know why I was embarrassed. Could it be that I just didn’t want to seem like a kid? Kids broke stuff all the time. Adults. Adults didn’t they were strong. They didn’t break bones or get ‘hairline fractures’ from fallin’ down the stairs. Or could it just be because I was supposed to be somethin’ now? I was the Herald thing. I had survived the Breach. Yet a set of icy stairs had been my match.

“I see.” He nodded, going back to healing my foot. “What were you ‘thinking’ about?”

“I wanted to figure out which of the Gods caused the Breach.” I felt him all of a sudden stop. His movements rigid before his eyes met mine. I didn't know what I saw behind them. Fear? Hope? Confusion? Sadness? His brows drew together and his jaw tightened and the look disappeared as fast as if came.

It felt like there was static in the room. That all of a sudden if the right or wrong words were said a bolt of lightning would strike in the cabin.

“Why do you think it was one of them?” Solas’s voice seemed strained. But his face remained deadpanned.

I shrugged. “Dunno. The shems say I was saved by their God, but I’m not human. So why would a human God help me? An elf. Their Maker never thought anything of us, so why should He save me? No, if there was some sorta ‘providence’ then it would’ve been from one of the Gods yeah?”

“I see.” He didn't elaborate, only continued his work on my foot till he pulled away. The feeling of my toes and ankle moving without pain was welcome.  “I’ll retrieve your boot,” he stated, standing.

“You don’t have to, I can get it myself.”

Solas shook his head. “Posturing is necessary. We can’t have the ‘Herald of Andraste’ wandering around without a shoe on now can we?”  He raised a brow at me, his mood seeming to have altered slightly.

“I’m not their Herald lady. I’m just me.”

“You may wish to see that, da’len, but to those who you inspire hope and faith in, will not. Whether you like it or not, you are The Herald of Andraste. No amount of refusal will shake the views of those who yet flock to your banner.” His voice stern. There was sympathy behind it, but it was if he was stating a fact.

These people, the ones that called me The Herald of Andraste, they were wrong. The whole lot of them were wrong. ‘My banner’,  _ I  _ didn’t have a banner, the Inquisition had one. I was just one kid who agreed to help more people. Just a kid that was now alone in a village that thought her some martyr.

I was still alone.

As if to solidify the fact, Solas exited his cabin in search of my ‘posturing’.

The cabin was all very, well, Solas. It has papers thrown about, but long and elegant words scripted on them. None of the letters looked familiar. But that could’ve just been the way he wrote. I hated reading cursive writing. Stupid loops and looking letters. The ‘r’s’ looked like ‘n’s’. It was all just kind of frustrating.

Off to the far side of the wall, was a bed. The sheets neatly made with only a single pillow at its head and an extra blanket at the foot. It wasn’t like the bed in the cabin I awoke in. This one was smaller, less puffy. I bet it was less comfy too. Aside from that, the room was pretty empty. A blazing hearth provided warmth near the bed. There didn’t appear to be any logs in it which was weird. Probably magic. Now that would be cool. If everyone had a magic fireplace no one would need to chop down any more trees for their fire. It makes things a lot easier. Less to carry around too. Hauling wood through a dense forest is not the best way to spend the day. I inched off my chair, testing my foot. It felt fine. Better than fine actually. Bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet I made my way halfway across the room before the door opened.

Solas returned before I could further investigate, my boot in hand. I gave him my thanks slipping the boot back onto my foot and abandoning his cabin. Outside, small snowflakes fluttered down gently, giving the village of Haven a sort of whimsical look. Like something out of a traveler's tale. A perfect and quiet little town, perfect save for the looming disaster that existed outside its walls.

I was living a story.

A terribly written story. There weren’t any damsels to save or heist to pull off. Nothing like what the Black fox would've done. No this was a bad story. One where the teller thought it funny to put a child as the hero. Where I would have to defeat the evil just outside. The Breach… All with the strength of my character.

This was a stupid story.

I made my way across the village, watching for ice on the stairs, as I explored. It was getting late when my stomach started to grumble. Following my nose, I was brought back around from the trebuchets where I was, to a large wooden building. Opening the doors, the smell of alcohol hit me like a charging halla. I almost gagged at the smell and left, but Varric and Cullen waving me over to a table near the large fireplace.

A nice bar waitress came over and handed me a bowl of broth. It was good broth there was gravy carrots, peas and these little pieces of green stalk that were crunchy. Least to say is, by the time Cullen abandoned me and Varric, I was on my third bowl. Varric chalked it up to everything that had happened. All the time I’d been unconscious or stuck with the Seeker.

“Why do you hate the Seeker?” I questioned. Varric seemed to hold a little bit of a grudge against her. It was obvious even with how much they seemed to, what’s the saying? ‘Dance around’ the issue.  

“It’s complicated, Keeper. Let's just say she wasn’t the nicest person when we first met.”

He did mention he was a prisoner like me when we were going to first close the Breach. Cassandra was pretty mean to everyone sorta. Especially the Chantry Cleric guy. Rodderin or somethin’. “She was like that with me too.” I paused my hands flinching to my wrists remembering waking up in the dungeon. “But she ain’t all bad. Plus,” I shot him a grin, “who could hate us, eh?”

Varric shook his head laughing. “Kid, I like how you think already.” He ruffled my hair and just chatted with me for an hour or two. I really didn’t know. It was nice. The topic of the Breach only came up once, but it was quickly deflected onto something more pressing like how he wrote so many books. It even went so far as to touching on how his crossbow was made. The dwarf was surprisingly tight-lipped about the whole thing though. You’da think he’d be more open to talkin’ about it with how much he valued ‘it’, sorry, ‘her’.

It wasn’t long before my eyes started to droop and sleep started to sound good. Varric walked me back to the cabin I’d ran from not even 8 hours prior. The large shack had the Inquisitions banner, a sword and eye like the one that'd been on the front of that book, flapping in the waning light. I pushed open the door. The room was warm, the bed made, and hearth stoked. It was all … comfortable.

A big, empty, comfortable room.  

It was nothing like an aravel. There weren’t any clan mates to help fight off the cold. No large blankets to curl up in. No one to sing me sweet songs or tell me of adventures as I drifted off to sleep. It was all just empty.

Varric said his ‘good nights’ before shutting the door behind him, leaving me alone. I dropped the boots and jacket off near the hearth and climbed into bed. The sheets were cold and stiff. Like someone had starched them. It wasn’t anything like the knitted blankets or furs of the clan. Nothing about this room seemed familiar.

I laid there underneath the foreign sheets looking up at the ceiling listening to the crackling of the dying fire. Sleep just couldn’t find me as the hearth faded and darkness overtook the room from its embers. Green light from the ever present Breach trickled in through the window, it was visible from where I laid. I didn’t like it. It was too much. Maybe too bright, too green. It was just bad.

The sounds of the wind howling against the cabin and the sounds of the tavern across the village did nothing to lull me to sleep. I tried counting rams, even holding my breath until the little black stars came into my vision, but nothin’ worked. The more I tried to force myself to sleep the more I realized how cold it was without anyone laying beside me. No mamae to hold me as the fade took me. No mamae to sing to me. No mamae to play with my hair as I started to fall to sleep. Nothing.

Throwing the covers back I went for my boots and coat, haphazardly putting them on and making my way out the cabin door. Outside it was cold. Colder than in the day. The moon wasn’t yet full, but it was hard to see with the light of the Breach blocking it out. I shook my head and headed down the path, freshly fallen snow, making each step crunch as I made my way up the set of icy stairs past the tavern.

\---

**Solas POV**

He wasn’t expecting there to be a knock on his door. Definitely not this late. It was the constant soft knocks that awoke him from the fade. He had tried to push the sounds away as he conversed with Wisdom over to day’s events. The Herald’s thought progression was concerning. She was cemented on the fact there was a ‘higher power’ at play. The humans had ensured that idea stuck. What were they thinking? Making a child take up that sort of mantle. Let alone trying to convince her, an elvhen child, that their god had been the one to protect her. The thought made Pride want to laugh and ever fueled his distrust towards the Chantry and those associated.

They weren’t above perverting children with ideals of a martyr. Giving her no chance to be a child. Her carelessness on the stairs had been apparent in that aspect. The girl shouldn't be thinking of abstract thoughts, thoughts far too close to the truth than Solas would like.

Solas still felt chilled from the moment that Sora had made the subject of her pondering known. He wanted to run in that instant. That a mere child had seen through so much, and even scratched at the truth despite all he and the Chantry had placed as a barrier between it. She was right and wrong. He was, overall, at fault for the Breach. It was  _ his _ orb that  _ his  _ agents had placed into Corypheus’s hands. The blame was his.

The deaths of all those there and even that of Sora’s mother. But there was no going back. Solas knew all too well how firmly history held onto time. How many choices, mistakes, would he fix if given the chance? Would he have spared Felassan? Allowed for his most trusted lieutenant to live? Perhaps.

If he went back farther he could have stopped this abomination of a world from forming. He would have found another way to lock away the Gods and their tyranny. The elf shook his head as the fade dissipated and Wisdom’s form faded out of his field of view. He could fixate himself on every ‘if’ in his past, yet it still wouldn’t make a difference. He was here now. Here to stay, at least for the time being. These humans couldn’t be trusted with the mark. They’d exploit it for its power once the Breach closed. If it could be closed.

There were the ‘ifs’ again. No. Solas needed to stay focused. He needed to remain in the moment. It was at this time that the Herald needed him. That the mark needed him. Were it not for him, the mark would have already consumed the little elf.

I shooked my head, half to sway away any traces of the fade and the other at what he had condemned an infant to face. Standing, he made his way to the door and the still audible knocking. Albeit quieter.

Turning the handle he expected to meet face to face with someone not, look down upon the small half frozen form of an elf. “Solas,” Sora said, through chattering teeth. “I’m tired.”

Solas stared wide-eyed at the girl. Where did he even begin with this child? She was unpredictable, to say the least. That or Solas wasn’t used to the thought of having an impressionable child around. “Why are you not in your cabin asleep?” Yes, that was a good first question.

Sora shrugged, as best she could given the large coat that practically engulfed her. “It was comfortable.”

“Comfortable?” She nodded solemnly as Solas inclined her head.

“Then why did you come  _ here _ ?”

“‘Cuz it was dark and empty.” The elf sniffled, raising her sleeve to wipe away a dripping nose. “I’ve never slept in a place like that before. Alone. We always had someone in the aravels. Mamae was always there,” her voice started to trail off as the sniffles turned to choked back sobs. “And… and she’d sing me songs to make me got to sleep.” The girl reached out and embraced the mage’s leg. “I miss ma mamae. She’d want me to be strong. But-but I don’t wanna sleep there. The Breach is there, I can see the Breach. I don’t wanna see it no more.” Sora’s voice was muffled slightly by her face being buried in his night trousers. Thankfully he had the foresight to sleep with pants and a light tunic on and not any other piece of clothing, or lack thereof. But as Solas looked down at the sobbing elf on his leg, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for her.

She was alone.

Alone in a strange land, with strange people, those of which expected something different than what you were used to giving. In a way, he could relate.

“Da’len you’re heating the outside of the cabin standing in the doorway like this. Come inside.” She obediently followed, not straying too far from his leg. Solas helped the girl into his bed, removing the blanket at the foot of it. She all but flopped into it, making sure to pull the covers from its tucked ends and make a little nest out of them.

Using the blanket from the end of the bed, Solas made himself a pillow out it to rest his head. The Hearth would be warm enough that he wouldn’t need one to cover himself. Though as he lowered himself to his makeshift made bed on the floor, and he began to drift back towards the fade, Sora peeked over the edge of the mattress.

“Solas?” her small voice came.

“Yes, da’len?”

“Ma serannas.” Solas was on the verge of the fade, it’s welcoming touch fueling his mana pool. His exhaustion letting him overlook her pronunciation this one time.

“Ra ma'shiva (It is my duty),” was all he could manage to utter, before finally slipping into his realm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update. I just have had not motivation to do-well anything. Do you ever just get in that place where you want to go home, but you know you're already there? That's what the past month has been like. 
> 
> I will continue with the Kid Inquisitor fic, which is great ( or at least I think it' great) I've already got certain scenes written and or planned out so after awhile there will be more updates sooner. 
> 
> I hope you all have a great day and thank you so much!!!!


	6. Hopeful Socks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora is given a reminder of what she stands for in the peoples eyes. Everyone is packing for the Hinterlands, but Sora seems to find time to play with elfroot and socks.

Commission done by the fabulous [x0mbi3s](http://x0mbi3s.tumblr.com/post/159727045916) of Sora when she's a little older!!! (perhaps when she gets to Skyhold, or at the end of Inquisition. Who knows :) )

 

* * *

 

 

I walked beside a large white wolf in a small clearing of the woods. I didn't remember getting there, nor why there was a wolf beside me. Its paws were in synch with each of my steps as we continued walking.

Looking over to the animal, I saw how the white hair shined in the sun above us, that filtered in through the waning canopy. It also appeared as if its coat was that of silver not white. It didn't say a word as we continued our walk through the trees; its ears flicking back and forth listening to the sweet tweeting of the birds and a steady, what sounded like, drum in the distance.

Wait.

I shook my head and paused, the sound of the drum drowning out the tunes of the bird for a second as I thought. Why would it talk? It was an animal. Wolves didn't talk; not in real life, only in stories.

As I halted, so too did the wolf, it's head cocking to the side as if in question. Something wasn't right.

“This isn't a story is it?” It didn't make a sound as I continued. “If yer gunna talk, say somethin’.” The wolf paused once again, as if in thought, then huffed.

“Not a story no, but we are within the fade,” its voice came smoothly. My eyes widened in surprise despite my asking for it to speak. I moved to question it further but the sound of the drumming drowned me out. The beating echoing in the woods, making the world around us shake and quiver. The wolf shook its muzzle, turned and fled into the woods, its coat glistening as it fled. Leaving me alone amidst the trees, the drumming fading to the distance.

I continued on alone. The feeling of needles pricking my back pressed me on as the trees started to close in, and the sun began to be cut out by the leaves and branches overhead. The lush forests grew thicker and thicker the further I walked. It got to the point where I struggled to get past. Only the feeling of needles on my skin pressed me on. Panic set in. I think it was panic. I don't know what, but I knew I had to run. I didn't know from why or to where. I just had to leave. This wasn't right. None of this was right.

I broke out into a full sprint as best I could, pushing branches and sticks away in my haste as I fled my unseen adversary. The forest began to crush me. Or at least it felt so. I closed my eyes trying to regain my ragged breathing.

Mamae wouldn't be afraid of nothin', of something she couldn’t see. She would be strong, she was strong. And so am I.

So am I.

The smell of a lush green meadow filled my senses as I run towards open arms; falling into their embrace as they wrap around me. Slender hands caress through my curly hair, careful around the sensitive tips of my ears. My nose nuzzles into the chest of ma mamae as she pulls at the knots.

“Ra, what have you been brushing with?” She tsked, pulling at the strands. “A fennec’s paw?” She looked down at me. “Perhaps it’s a tree branch, yes? Or a pine cone?”

I giggle as she brings a finger to bop me on the nose. “No mamae!”

I watched her smile and bring me in for another hug. Everything about her was just as I remembered. Her smell, her robes, the way she wore her hair, even the creases of her brows.

Wait. Remember.

This wasn't right. This was the fade.

Looking back to my mother, I watched as her skin began to turn a sandy brown. Small little lines appeared crossing over, cracking. When she tried to speak more of her face cracked, and smoke came from her mouth. Her expression shifted to the one of pain and horror her hand raised blocking some unseen light and her body turned to ash before me. I ever clawing at her robes desperately trying to keep her here, to keep her with me.

“Mamae!” I screamed as her body dissipated before my eyes. Ash spreading carelessly across the grass.

She was gone. Again.

No.

No. no. no.

I wasn’t going to lose her, not to ashes. Not again. No.

My hands shook as I grasped at the grass, trying desperately to maintain my hold on the fragments of my mother. Of mamae. My hands feeling like lead as I tried still to hold on. Only making purchase with a hand full of her, I wept into the ashes. My resolve no longer there. It was raw, everything here felt raw now. Like I was bare to the meadow around me. It just seemed to fall apart. The grass turned a yellow colour as I wept still. The smell of smoke filled my nose. I looked up from my woe to see the meadow on fire. Columns of smoke billowed towards from the forest I had just walked in. Yet I didn’t feel scared. I felt nothing.

Tears were still fresh on my face, the smoke making them water still. The ashes of my mother, I clung to in desperation. Somehow wishing for this to all stop, for the smoke to be gone, for the meadow to be back as it was, for mamae to still hold me in my arms. I let out a small breath knowing that this wasn’t a story, that this was real. This was all the fade. Everything I felt and saw, all a fabrication.

 

\---

Solas POV

Another loud knock came rasping on the door just after the eighth bell. Solas had already awakened to the damned sound. The fade making it impossible to ignore. Shaking his head, he went to get up from the floor. Albeit complicated only slightly by the presence of the child half hanging out of the bed, suspended only by the blankets that cocooned her. Save for a hand that was clutched to the blanket he'd been covered in.

He had to admit, he only half remembered welcoming her into his cabin. Solas's hazy mind tried to recollect the events of last night. The elf coming to the door, her nose running and all but clutching onto his leg as she wept over the events of the past few days. His own pride and guilt probably lead him to this point. He knew it did. That made it all the worse.

Pride was the reason for her suffering. The least he could do was bear a small amount, even if it meant catering to a child. Protecting it in simple ways.

The knocking continued.

“A moment please.” He called out irritably, moving towards the sound, pausing for a moment to check that he  wore his foot wrappings and that his staff was strapped to his back. Opening the door, slightly Solas came face to face with a worried Seeker, her brows knitted together and sweat was clear on her brow.

“Apostate, follow me. Now.” Her voice was stern as she all but pulled Solas from the opening and into the cold mountain air. Solas almost stumbled into the snow as the Seeker already made her exit and started to descend down the path. “Quickly, we cannot waste any time.” She called over her shoulder. The warrior he saw before him was not the same rough and steeled woman he’d seen prior. She was frantic.

He followed her halfway down the path to the entrance of Haven before he could finally get a word in. “Is something the matter Seeker?”

“Yes--” She started waving over a group of scouts that were positioned just outside the open doors of the village.“I should have known, I was rash, I trusted too easily.” She scolded herself shaking her head. “The Heralds missing, many assume she fled in the night. Her quarters were empty when a maid when to wake her.”

“Seek--”

Cassandra shook her head, as the scouts formed effortlessly into a two ranked division in front of them. “I was a blasted fool!”

“If I may interject--”

“Quickly, I need you three to scout to the south and you two to the north. See if you can spot any sign of the Herald.” The warriors ordered ignoring Solas’s protests. Her voice was stern and her soldiers before her straight backed and obedient. “Any traces of the Herald will be reported immediately to either Sister leliana or myself. Are we clear?”

The soldiers agreed in unison and dismissed themselves to their searches. The Seeker then turned to Pride. “Solas, you will come with Varric and me. We’ll be searching for the Herald near the Breach.”

“The Her--”

The Seeker cut him off yet again as she now paced. “The girl probably went back to the remains of her mothe--”

“Seeker Pentaghast.” Solas cut her off curtly drawing the woman's attention.

“What is it Solas?” Her tone irritant

“The Herald's is safe, she yet remains in Haven.”

“Where?!” She stormed towards Solas. Her face ravenous with anger and surprise.

“She is in my cabin.”

“In your cabin?” There was an edge of accusation to the words. An edge that his own pride bristles against. But he couldn’t meet the Seeker with force, no, he was the humble apostate. He needed to act his role. To act as, as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The thought almost made the elf smirk if not for the fuming Seeker before him.

“Yes, she knocked on my door around midnight crying. She didn’t want to sleep in the big room alone. Who could blame her? The child's probably never needed to sleep alone before given how the Dalish are, let alone after everything that has occurred.”

“I see. Thank you for aiding the Herald. I believe I might have over reacted a bit.” She confessed. Solas wanted to roll his eyes. ‘A bit’ was an understatement. She was ready to have whatever small standing army the Inquisition currently had march to find their martyr.

“No need to worry Seeker. I shall see to it that she is well. We’ll meet you in the Tavern for breakfast.” He assured her.

“There’s no need Solas. Just tell her that we leave at first light tomorrow for the Hinterlands. And that if she has any issues with her accommodations, tell her to speak with Lady Josephine.” The Seeker nodded curtly, her cheeks aflame with embarrassment.

\---

Sora POV

Noises, ash in my mouth. “Mamae!” I screamed shooting up in bed. Blankets wrapped around me hindering my movements. These were not my sheets, not my furs, not my avrael. The room was warm and empty, a pile of blankets laid on the floor beside the soft bed I laid in. It wasn’t home. “Oh....”

I remember.

“I see you’re awake,” a voice came, opening the door slightly. Solas ducked in the entrance, the armor of the Seeker could be seen just outside. Why was she here?

“Did I wake ya?”

Solas shook his head. “No, I was up earlier, though the Seeker made sure of that.” he paused deflecting. “She was concerned.”

I stood from the bed, desperately trying to unattach myself from the wrapped blankets that constricted my limbs. The soft, warm sheets reluctant to let go. Tilting my head to the side, I asked why.

“Because you were missing from your cabin.” The elf replied in monotone. His eyes watching as I struggled against the fabric, finally only freeing myself and falling to the floor as I kicked them off with great struggle. His brow arched, as the mage's hands were clasped behind his back. He seemed less than amused that I was here. Maybe I shouldn't've come to his cabin, maybe I should've just stayed in mine no matter how big or comfortable it was.

Guilt started to bubble up inside me, as I stood, my legs shaky. “Oh.” I looked away from Solas and down at my feet as I tapped them nervously on the ground. He probably hated me. I’d intruded on his sleep, now I was pestering him in the morning. There was an awkward moment in the still air as we both didn’t say anything. It was if … maybe, yes. I am annoying him. He doesn’t want me here. “Sorry,” was all I managed.

He looked at me with sympathy as something flashed across his face, and he squatted down to meet my eye level. Peaking my head up, I met his gaze. It was like looking at stones, but stones I knew wouldn’t be hurled at me. The elf paused before placing a stiff hand on my shoulder. “They thought you’d run away, abandoned the Inquisition, abandoned them.” Solas’s said gently, as if I were to be spooked like a baby halla.

I felt my eyes begin to sting. I don’t know if it was because I still was shaken from seeing mamae turn to ash before me again, or just because I’d made Solas hate me. The Seeker probably hated me too now. I shoulda just stayed in my cabin. “But I didn’t, I just came here.” I protested, my voice giving away how close I was to crying.

“Those that are looking out for you didn’t know that.”

“Why would they even care if I left?”

Solas stood shaking his head, his tone almost scolding. “You give them hope da’len.” I felt his hand leave my shoulder as he turned to the door. Hope? How could I give them hope? I knew what hope was. It was feeling in your stomach, not hunger, but like a lightness that weighed a lot. It was the thing that you clung to. Mamae had said it was strength. Hope was the strength to continue going because you feel as if it’s going to be better.

And these people had it in them because of me.

“Come now, I believe the Tavern has already begun to serve breakfast.”

I looked up to Solas gesturing to the door. A pit formed in my throat making me stand fast.

“I'm not hungry,” I said quietly, even though at the mention of food I felt my stomach warble.

“I find that hard to believe. Come.”

“No.”

The elf sighed and brought his hands to his face. “Sora, do you remember what I said about posturing?”

“Fine.” I bit my lip. “But it ain't cuz’ you told me to. I wanted to.”

The elf shook his head and walked out the door. “Ma nuvenin (As you wish).”

 

I followed after him, quickly grabbing the coat and boots I’d somehow kicked off during my sleep. I was missing a sock on my left foot, but I shrugged at it. Ya didn't exactly need socks for boots. It wasn’t a law or somethin’. I paused looking down to double check that my shem boots were on the right foot. Maybe it was a law. Solas wore foot wraps, so maybe he wouldn’t be the best to ask. I should probably ask Varric about that. He’d know.

I walked out into the morning mountain air. The snow gently fell from the grey sky above. The sun glistening off the snow making me squint. The shining armor of Cassandra didn’t help either. “Good morning, Seeker.” I chimed, my sleeve-covered hand shading my eyes.

“And to you as well, Herald.” She nodded to me, then to Solas. “Solas.”

“Seeker.” He responded in kind, a slight tilt of his head letting her know that he accepted her greeting. Or whatever that just was. I’m not sure. Probably some weird adult thing. Maybe they liked each other. Maybe that’s why she’d been waiting for Solas. I smirked at the thought. Maybe they ever loved each other. Mamae told me adults who spent time together typically loved one another. She always told me of how she and papae would spend time together, either hunting or just walking around the camp. They loved each other. I knew they did. Mamae told me she loved him, that from their love they had me. But that papae had other duties, that his love for his clan was more important than her.

I never liked that part. Papae had to put his clan before mamae and me. She always got a sad look when she said that part.  

We stood there awkwardly, the Seeker just looking between me and Solas, as Solas just clasped his hands behind his back looking indifferent. Ya, I bet there was something going on between them. I’d seen enough clans mates act this way before. Mamae said they were ‘twitterpated’ and that it’d be ‘no time before they roost’. Or at least something along those lines. Mamae always smiled as she told me these things, then she’d ruffle my hair telling me I'd know all about it when I was older.

“Right then, Herald,” Cassandra spoke, her voice snapping my attention away from mamae. “If there is something wrong with your cabin I can have Josephine--”

“Naw.” I cut her off.  “Nothin’ is the matter with it, I just-- just, I don't know…” I pursed my lips unsure how to tell her about it all. I was Dalish, how could this human understand us? “Never mind.”

She looked down at me, her face somewhat indifferent, one mirroring Solas’s. “I'd like to speak with you after breakfast, herald. It's regarding our trip to the Hinterlands.”

“Yes, Seeker.” I nodded. The Hinterlands was where the Inquisition was needed next. It’s where I had to meet the Chantry lady and ‘expand the Inquisition’. Whatever that meant. It was going to be a long trip, but manageable, not as far as from the clan to Haven though, that was a plus.

“Oh, and I have a prop- proper - proposition for you.” I blurted out. “Can ya call me Sora. Not Herald?”

The Seeker paused then nodded slowly.“I believe that is manageable, yes.”

I grinned knowing that now, even if I had to posture or be posturing, at least they knew I didn’t like it. Solas was right, I had to be their hope, even if I didn’t want to be. The people of Haven, Solas, Varric and even the Seeker needed it. Maybe I could be that spark in the darkness, the story that makes others want to get up and do somethin’. I could be like the Black Fox.

I quite liked that idea.

\---

Varric greeted Solas and me for breakfast. He seemed to be eating a bowl of glump and was more than willing to pass me his leftovers when I had finished mine. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.

Cassandra spoke with me after breakfast in the big room with the map. The really pretty gold lady brought me in a few books that I could stand on so I could see over the top of the table.

She was so thoughtful, and sweet. I need to make her somethin’ for it. It wasn’t often that shems were nice to elves, but I had the feelin’ Josephine was like this to everyone. And by that conclusion, I need to make her like a necklace or a poem or something. I might be able to ask one of the other advisors after the war meeting.

Cullen, Leliana, Josephine and the Seeker all talked about the trip to the Hinterlands _again_. I understood it all the first time, but apparently, there were more 'logistics' they needed to go over. We were going to be there for around two weeks and it’d take four days of walking to get there and two days on horseback coming back if everything went well. They asked me to make sure that the Inquisition got the horses (I’m pretty sure they most of the talking, but I was still supposed to be there for ‘posturing’) and that _I_ specifically spoke to Mother Giselle. They said that she was helping refugees at the crossroads. Which was great in my mind. She was one of those Chantry ladies, isn’t that what they were supposed to do? Help when no one else was, making sure everyone (humans) were taken care of and had something in their bellies and a blanket to curl up in. Mamae would have done the same thing, she was always there for people.

A pit formed in my stomach thinking of her as my mind flashed back to the dream I had. Grasping at ashes.

No. I had to focus on what they were saying. Extend the Inquisition’s reach. 

Josephine, Creators smile upon her, said that she thought the meeting was done and sent me off to lunch. I left the big Chantry leaving all of them to discuss whatever it is that adults talk about behind closed doors.

I toured around Haven, the requisition lady was nice, she seemed to be familiar with a guy named Loghain. I just sort of nodded along. She wanted me to go out into the woods to find a logging stand. A weird request, but I was Dalish. I think I could find a bunch of wood. So I set off stopping by the little forge where I picked up a new bow and a quiver full of arrows. Past the soldiers and tents, I found a little path leading hopefully into the outskirts of Haven.

I found the logging stand without any problems, also enough elfroot that my hands were stained green from the leaves. I ‘reported back’ to the requisition lady and headed for Solas’s cabin. I owed him some elfroot. It was the least I could do.

I wanted to go into the cabin, but it was locked when I tried the door. I couldn’t just leave the elfroot outside in the snow, they’d be ruined for whatever concord-concoctions Solas would need ‘em for.

I looked around for something to put ‘em in but there was nothin in this part of Haven but damn snow. Which meant I’d have to think of something outside the box. Or shoe… I grabbed my boot the idea burning brightly in my mind. Taking off the shoe that had the foot with the sock in it, I peeled off the single sock and quickly shuffled my boot back. The cold nipping at my toes. The sock smelled, but it would be perfect. Shoving the elfroot into the sock, I wedged it as high as I could in between the door so that there was no way he could miss it.

Smiling at my ingenuity, I made my way to the tavern just as the thirteenth bell rung. Flissa dashed over with a sandwich of something and a glass of milk. I never got this treatment back in at the clan. We always had to wait in line, and the hunters always went first.

Varric joined me as I was munching on my second sandwich. We talked and talked all about the Hinterlands and left me to myself after lunch, said he needed to prepare for our trip to the Hinterlands in the morning. I was excited to go, in all honesty. The thought of going on an adventure made me want to sing. It was going to be like all the ones of the Black Fox and his dashing and daring friends. No one to tell us what to do or say it’s bedtime. I told Varric this before he left to go and pack, he seemed to think it was cute or something.

I spent the entire day packing everything I needed. I even snuck into the kitchen and stole some sweets and apples. I’m sure none of the cooks minded, none of them saw me I don’t think. But adventurers needed nourishment. And that's exactly what I got us. I had enough food on my own to keep us going for a few weeks if need be. Three apples, a pack of raisins, six sweet rolls, a tankard for each of us, and an impressive eight slices of hard cheese. I was ready.

The day passed, and once again I met up with Varric. He kept me company and reminded me that everything was going to okay. He seemed to keep asking if I knew how to fight or to correct me on my stances with my bow. He was helpful sort of. His face seemed to be riddled with creases of strain whenever we talked about going. Maybe he was nervous. I wouldn't have pegged him for a dwarf who was scared to go into the forests. There wasn't anything bad in there. A couple Fennecs, nugs, squirrels, potentially even bears or wolves. Nothing the Black Fox and her company couldn't handle.

\---

Solas POV 3rd Person

Solas sauntered up to his cabin, his attention to the tome in his hand as he waved for the ward on his door to open. But something was wrong, he could feel it in the way the ward responded to him. A mage had tampered with the ward slightly. Not enough to unlock it, but enough to alert Solas’s magic to react. Placing the tome at his side, he examined the door. Only then did he see the atrocious sock wedged between the door and the hinge. A prank. That’s what this was. Perhaps one of Adan's healers thought it amusing to harass Solas.

The elf shook his head and with the flick of his hand, the sock burst into flames. The fire not singing or damaging the wooden door. The blaze completely contained at the putrid sock burnt to ash, but with a familiar scent of elfroot mixed in.

Entering his cabin he let out a sigh, the room was still a mess from this morning's commotion and the Herald abrupt visit. The small, little elf sniveling at the door in the middle of the night shivering cold. It surprised Solas, but he knew if it happened again, he would do the same all over.

He set the tome he was reading on the desk in the corner, papers and small little notes scattered across its surface. His hands deftly cleaning up the papers and stacking the books and tomes as he prepared for the trip. As far as Solas could tell there was a good possibility of his artifacts being in the Hinterlands. Ones that have been sitting for ages absorbing power gradually from the veil. Activating them now would further degrade its integrity and give him a small amount of power back.

Without his orb, he had no way of instantly regaining the strength and power he had before in Arlathan in order to correct this world of its mistakes. If he could activate enough of them he might be able to gain enough power within the next few years to accomplish his task.

That is if the Breach doesn’t destroy the world before then, and the Elder One is dealt with. Solas knew the magister was still alive after the blast, the fade visions they all witnessed at the temple was not comforting. The orb was nowhere in the still smoldering ashes. The creature must have somehow survived he was sure of it. His agents have reported to him of unknown activity in other regions of Ferelden. Solas could only suspect it was the magister’s forces gathering their strength. With his orb in its hands, there was an untold amount of danger to Sora. Without the power of the mark, the orb was useless aside from sitting and absorbing power like it had been doing for millennia while Solas slept. Yet the amount of the power now in the child's hand, Corypheus was bound to come for it. A thought that chilled Solas to the marrow.

Sora would be forced to confront the creature soon. The apostate just wished the Breach would be closed, and that Sora would be ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY THIS CHAPTER IS SO LATE! This has been the absolute worst chapter to write. There was no huge event, it was just a tie in chapter and I just about wanted to shoot myself because nothing was working. I have four rough drafts of this chapter, together equaling around 30-ish pages of writing. I tried to make it cute, I hope it worked, because it was going to be a short one no matter what I did or wrote. 
> 
> Once again, I'm sorry.


	7. Wrapping Up to Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some fluff between companions and Sora. Sora also gets bored on the road quite easily.

We’re leaving. I can't believe it, we’re finally leaving Haven.

It was late when once again I sauntered through the snow and rasped on the door to Solas’s cabin, mine still too empty. I slept there once again that night, Solas giving up his bed and sleeping on the floor. I felt like there was a pit in my stomach when I snuggled into the herb-scented sheets. This elf had been so kind to me, so generous. He’d healed me, let me sleep in his cabin, given me advice, Solas saved my life by controlling the Creators given mark while I had been sleeping. He’d done so much for me. What have I done to him? Replaced his elfroot and criticized how he made tea. I should be doing more to earn his generosity and kindness.

I didn’t sleep well that night, no dreams came to me, only the feelings like I was somewhere in between. Like I wasn’t asleep, but I also wasn’t awake.

The morning came swiftly like a cold winds over the mountain. I was early to rise, at the crack of dawn, as the light flooded in I was awake. Solas still softly snored on the floor beside the bed. I knew better than to wake him, yet I still thanked the sleeping form before scurrying off back to my cabin.

The cabin wasn’t cold like I had expected it to be, there was a blazing hearth warming the room as I entered. Taking off my boots with a thud, I made my way to my pack with all my supplies and extra food. My stomach growled as I thought about the contents. No. I needed this for the road. We all did. It was the group's food not just mine.

I start to undress from yesterday's clothes into the freshly laid out travelling pair that somehow showed up on my bed. It was odd how this was all happening, mamae never really picked out my clothes from me. She’s let me wear a brown sack if she knew I wanted to. It was only on really important days that she ever did; like weddings, or when the clans got together that she did.

As I slipped on a sturdy and warm leather jacket with too many buckles, a knock came on the door.

“Come in!” I yelled, my hands busy trying to find the correct loop to tie it off to. The door opened slowly and the Seeker in her full uniform was standing there looking stoic as ever. She gave me a curious look when she saw my struggles.

“Her- Sora,” she started “that strap connects to the belt.” She pointed to the strip of white fabric that seemed to make its way to the ground.

“Oh, thank you.” I nodded reaching for the belt.

“When you’re done please meet with your pack out at the stables. Master Tethr--”

“Done!” I shouted in victory as the belt finally fit into place and I was no longer tangled in its snare. The Seeker didn’t look all too pleased with me. “Sorry, you said you wanted me where?” I asked innocently.

“At the stables would be desirable. But in seeing that you’re all but ready to go, I’ll escort you.”

I nodded and went to my boots when the Seeker cleared her throat. “Sora where are your socks.” I paused as I looked at my boots. Reaching inside my left boot, I pulled out a sock victoriously and put it on. “What of your other one?” She looked down at my one bare foot.

“Oh. I left that one as Solas’s.”

The human opened her mouth as if she was going to comment, but decided against it. She nodded slowly and excused herself. Telling me that I should retrieve it and meet her and Varric down by the stables so that they could leave promptly.

Running out the door, both boots on, and my pack bouncing on my back as I made a dash for Solas’s cabin, avoiding any icy parts. The elf was just leaving his cabin by the time that I skidded to a halt outside. He seemed surprised at first, then slipped back into a state of calmness as if he should have expected me.

“Is there something you need da’len?” The mage asked, his green tunic flapping in the light breeze.

“Ya, yesterday I wanted to thank you for healin’ ma foot so I left you some elfroot at your door.” There was a quizzical look that came across the mages face, but before he could ask or deny anything, “I left it in ma sock, and the Seeker says I need socks, both of em’.” pawing the snow with my foot I looked up at him. “I know it was a gift, but I don’t want the Seeker gettin’ mad at me. Can I please have it back? Pretty please with a berry on top?” I added quickly. I don’t know how to describe the look that came across his face, but he seemed to sigh and take a longer blink then normal.

“A moment da’len.” He waved his hand in front of the handle of his cabin and the door swung open.  
___

Fenedhis, Of course, the sock was hers, and of course, fate would be kind enough to him that she would need it back after he burned her gift. Solas tried not to groan at the sheer childish nature and immaturity that he was having to face. Who in their right mind would but elfroot in a sock?

No matter, it was done and the sun was rising, and the Hinterlands awaited them.

Solas rummaged around in his room looking for something suitable when his hands brushed against a warm a pair of silk ribbons. Smiling to himself at his cleverness he took the pair of ribbons and emerged from his cabin. The child sitting on the snow back just outside her hands drawing little symbols in the snow.

“If you please da’len.” He motioned for her to come closer. Her ears perking up as she saw what was in his hands.

“Are THOSE for ME?!” She all but squeaked as Solas nodded holding up the enchanted foot wrappings. They were an older pair, ones that he used when he came to Haven. They had a moderate heat enchantment, and would allow for her feet to at least remain warm. She seemed enthralled with them and all but chucked her boots and singular sock off.

Solas knelt down, started the foot wrapping and immediately realized they’d be too big for her. Folding the wrappings in half he cut them with his travelling knife so that they wouldn’t engulf the child's leg. Once again he started the foot wrappings. Sora basically vibrating with excitement as he finished the last foot.

She jumped up from her seated position, Solas still kneeling in the snow. “They’re so warm!” She smiled. “Thank you Solas!” She exclaimed her arms snaring the mage into an embrace. “Ma serannas:”

Solas smiled at her pronunciation. “Ma melava halani da’len.” ‘You helped me, child’.

The two walked down to the stables together, Sora’s boots strung to her pack. She showed them off to the Dwarf first, and he made quite a few compliments on them much to Sora’s vanity.

\---

There were four mounts waiting for them at the stables, one attached to a filled cart, its mane a grey that contrasted a sort of ashed look, one of brown colouring with a white star on its forehead, the other two mixtures of black and white. The only differences between the two black and white ones was that one was larger than the other. The smaller one looking like it was half grown compared to the other one. This was going to be so much fun! After showing off my new foot wrappings to Varric, I immediately walked up to the smaller of the horses, there was a stable elf on the one side of it holding a rope of some kind. It was already cool to see. I looked at the stable elf, who seemed a little too tense around me or the horse, I don’t know. Probably was the horse, even though it was the smaller of the four, it was still huge.

“Can I pet it?” I asked. The stable elf looked surprised but nodded.

“Just make sure that ya don’t put yer fingers in its mouth. It might think they’re carrots… don’t want ya losing yer hand your worship.” sticking my hand out flat I placed it slowly against the mounts nose earning a huff in response. A smile came to my lips as I stroked its black and white hair. I don’t think I’d ever touched a horse before, a halla or hart sure, but never a horse. “She seems to like ya.” The stable elf said.

“What’s her name?” I asked still petting the horse.

“We don’t know really, her owner was killed in the explosion. But we call her Mouse.” the elf adjusted his hands on the rope “She’s an ol’gal, but she gets the work done, but she’s got the personality and mannerisms of a mouse.”

“Well, I think she's perfect.” I smiled up at the elf. I looked behind me, Solas, Varric and the Seeker were all gathered around the back end of the cart, the Seeker pointing to something on a map. I thanked the elf and gave Mouse one last pat before joining the others.

“We’ve already lost an hour of sunlight. Thank the Maker we were able to get these workhorses, but we might not make it to the inn in time at this rate.” Cassandra said.  
  
“Look, Seeker, if we make it we make it I’m glad we just don’t have to walk. I’m not one to sleep outside, I’d take a warm bed and shitty tavern food any day over the ground, but if we push those mounts too hard, we won’t make it anywhere, and Chuckles here will have to pull the cart, and I don’t want to see the elf sweat.” The dwarf said casually pointing to Solas. “No offence Chuckles.”

“None taken master Tethras,” Solas said almost bored.

The Seeker paused. “Alright. Then we leave immediately.” She looked to me. “You’ll be riding in the cart for the journey. I am to assume you have never ridden a mount before.”

I shrugged. “Kinda.”

“Kinda?” The Seeker said irritated.

“Well~ I did ride a halla before, but we ain’t supposed to do that. And mamae had me sit with her when we rode a hart.”

The Seeker nodded, “no experience then. Once we receive the mounts from Horse Master Dennet you will be trained. For now Sora, you’ll be in the cart.” She pointed, before heading off to her own mount, the brown one with the star on its forehead.

I noticed Solas get on the one with the grey mane, and Varric got to ride Mouse.Once we were all saddled up, I wedged in place in the packed cart, the town of Haven, of those awake, seemed to wave us off. The snowy hills and pine trees of the valley gave way around noon to the first sights of green aside from the Breach. Little pockets of grass were bringing up through the snow, and I swear I saw some trees with budding leaves on them. There was still quite a bit of snow and pine trees, but now it was more mud and birch trees.

The cart got stuck three times, on the third time, we decided it was for the best if we just stopped and had lunch. My stomach agreed. Cassandra pulled out some bread and cheese, and we munched on that before heading out once again. Everyone was sort of quiet. Varric was the only one doing the talking. He liked to talk. I realized that now, but he was one of those talkers that were good at it. He didn’t spit or mumble, which was a plus.

I think though it was his stories of adventure that I really enjoyed most about when he talked. This Hawke girl was a talented mage who single-handedly got into the worst situations possible, but with the help of her friends, she got out of them again. She was sort of like the Black Fox. She had some of the same friends too, a knight a runaway circle mage, and a witty dwarf. All of them working together to escape death at the last moment! It was so cool.

But as the day went on, Varric's voice seemed to dampen compared to the sound of the wheels of the cart grinding the dirt beneath its weight, and the horses clamping down the dirt road. I laid back, looking up at the blue sky, my feet dangling over the side of the cart.

“Are we there yet?” I let out a tired sigh.

“Not yet Keeper.” Varric piped up.

“Ughhh-” I sighed even more dramatically. Looking back up at the sky, I started to imagine the little clouds that would appear as an animal or something. One was clearly a mabari. You couldn’t mistake its wide shoulders and wagging tail. Another was more of a long-necked rabbit, floppy ears more of a whisp in the sky than an actual cloud. I popped my head up to look at my companions. “How ‘bout now? Are we there yet?”

Solas was the one to answer me this time. “No Da’len. Not yet.” His voice was firm.

Sighing again, I looked back up to the sky. There were barely any clouds anyways… I was bored. No one was talking, nothing was happening. Putting my lips together, I made a popping sound in my boredom. It was kinda fun. *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop*. I giggled to myself. I watched Solas’s ear twitch every time I popped. *pop* there it was again. It was kind of amusing. *pop* *pop* *pop*.

“Da’len.” Solas’s stern voice came. I froze not making a sound.  
“Ir abelas Solas.” He nodded at my apology.

I was sooo boreeeeddddd.

When we made it to the inn alright much to everyone's thanks. I don’t think after that long and boring of a day of travel, anyone wanted to sleep on the ground. We shared rooms, I was with the Seeker, and Varric and Solas were together in another.

Dinner was served by the inn, and it was a good hearty broth with hard bread. But I showed everyone that if ya leave the bread in the broth for a bit, that it became edible. I got a thumbs up from Varric on that one. Maybe today wasn't all that boring after all. Tomorrow I’m gunna have to tell em’ about my adventures as the Black Fox, yeah, it won’t be that bornin’ then.

Tomorrow we would arrive in the Hinterlands I believed, or at least we’d get there late. But tomorrow was going to be a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being away and not updating anything at att this semester of uni has been rough, but I am looking to writing more in the coming months. Also sorry for the chapter being so short. the next one will be a huge step forward for the plot, character development and probably around 20 pages... I better get started!
> 
> Oh and I am looking to update another one of my fics, but don't know which one I should update. Please comment below with what one you think I should do.


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